The Duelists and the Duelless
by LLawliet122
Summary: After the events of the Vytal Festival, Ruby Rose wants nothing more than to just get to Haven alive with her friends. However, as dark forces within Remnant plot and scheme, a wrench is thrown into everyone's plans-or rather, a card. Takes place after Volume 3 of RWBY and after episode 53 of Arc-V.
1. An Escape from Death

It was going perfectly. The world was at his fingertips. Unlimited power was at his beck and call. Even better than that, he was going to finally be at the top of the food chain. Unfortunately, there's a funny thing about food chains. There's always something higher than you on it.

Even when it came to humans.

What would be on his obituary? "Master thief?" "Cunning mastermind?" "Snappy dresser?" Any of those would do, really. No, no they wouldn't. He'd hate any of that. Except the last one, maybe. No-all that was just his mind trying to accept the reality of his situation.

The reality of death.

Roman Torchwick had lived through poverty, gang wars, betrayals, the White Fang, and even the machinations of Cinder Fall and her ilk. What was his reward for all his hard work? His prize for all the blood, sweat, and tears he shed for all those years?

The privilege of being eaten alive by a Grimm at the very moment of his victory.

During his goddamned speech, no less.

Roman had to admit, though, it was better than going out a loser. He was biting the bullet in the prime of his life, his peak. As he closed his eyes one last time, he thought that, oddly enough, he was pretty ok with this.

Wait, no. That was the whole "trying to accept reality" thing again.

Roman didn't want to die. He really didn't. But, you can't always get what you want. Sometimes, life takes a bite out of you. And sometimes it just swallows you whole.

Heh. That was a good one. Shame he couldn't say it. Neo would've-

Neo. That's right. He didn't even get to say goodbye. It's not like he hated the girl-she stood by his side for longer than anyone else he knew. She fought beside him, figuratively and literally. He wouldn't have had Little Red where he did if it wasn't for Neo. The least he wanted to do before he bit the dust was say "thanks" or something.

Actually, maybe not "thanks." That word really felt weird on his tongue. Something like that, though. Something-

Something was wrong.

Roman didn't quite know what the inside of a Grimm felt like, but it was just like a bigger, scarier animal. He should have been feeling teeth a minute ago, and he should be feeling some kind of burning sensation right about now. After all, even Grimm had to have digestive tracts, right?

Actually, he wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer to that.

The point was, it should've felt warm (to say the least), and with some squishy bits surrounding him. He felt a little chilly, to tell the truth. Hell, he shouldn't have been feeling anything. His whole body should have just melted by now, but instead, he felt the hard floor beneath his feet-

Hold on a second.

Roman's eyes snapped open, darting from side to side. He expected to see nothing but pitch black, maybe a couple red organs here or there. Instead, he saw computers. Lots and lots of computers. Wires lay in tangled messes underneath consoles with complicated buttons and flashing lights. In front of him (and all around him, actually) was a clear glass tube, and a large control panel.

Roman raised his weapon, his ever trusty Melodic Cudgel, and aimed it at-

It was then he realized that his weapon wasn't even in his hand.

This day just kept getting better and better.

There were some pros and cons to this situation. For one, he was alive. That was a pleasant surprise. On the downside, he was a prisoner somewhere. But how could he even get caught? Did Little Red cut through the Grimm and knock him out? No, that couldn't be right-he'd been conscious for the whole "being eaten alive" thing.

Maybe it wasn't a Grimm after all. It could have been some kind of Atlas technology. Yeah. A robot. That would explain the cold feeling. Then again, Atlas having Grimm robots seemed kind of counterproductive to their usual M.O.

It could have been a backup plan of Cinder's. After all, with the Grimm running rampant and the White Fang on the move, odds were that she needed to retain all the help she could get. Then again, she never seemed extremely fond of Roman or his gang, and probably wouldn't go through all the trouble.

There was also the most morbid of all the options-he really was dead, and this was some kind of purgatory.

That idea didn't sit too well with him.

In the end, Roman decided to do the only thing he figured he could do in a situation like this. It had worked before, it would probably work here, and it'd continue to work until the day he actually died.

He started to talk.

"Hello? Anyone home?" Roman rapped on the walls of the tube with his knuckles. "As much as I enjoy the hospitality here, I'd much rather prefer the option that doesn't involve me breaking out of here! It's so much work, and so much glass to clean up-does anyone here really want that?"

The thief heard no answer. "I'll give you kind people to the count of three before I start getting violent! One!" He accentuated his counting with a punch on the tube, causing it to rumble. "Two!" Another punch rang out, cracks beginning to show in the tube. Roman grinned. This was too easy. "And…three!" He drew his fist back for another punch, ready for the oh-so-familiar sound of shattering glass to hit his ears.

He got something else. A "whoosh", and a series of footsteps. The walls of the tube shone bright for a moment before taking on a dark violet hue. Roman lowered his fist, glowering at the wall. "I was looking forward to that," he grumbled as the footsteps came to a stop.

"I'm sure you were," a low, gravelly voice replied. "Please, feel free to step out of the chamber. I'm sure you'd like some room to breathe."

Roman reached a hand out, tentatively poking it through the purple wall. Finding it safely outside, he hopped out of the tube towards where the voice had come from, stretching his arms wide as he did so. "Well, it's about time someone showed up." Roman placed one hand on his bowler hat, adjusting it slightly. "It's really rude to keep guests waiting, you know."

In front of Roman stood a tall man, clad in a dark violet…well, everything, really. With the exception of his silver boots and black gloves, the man's outfit was nearly all violet. He wore a uniform-much like the Atlas military, to be honest-with golden shoulder pads, a long cape, and sash with a purple gem in the middle. The purple regalia wasn't the most interesting part about the man though. That honor went to his head.

The man's head was as bald as a newborn baby's, with a strange mechanical device implanted onto the left side. His veins bulged wide, almost as if they were ready to burst. Roman felt ready to vomit just at the sight of him, though a part of that might have been some residual "I almost got eaten by a goddamned Grimm" sickness.

Flanking the man were a series of masked soldiers, clad in a similar outfit but with a dark blue color scheme. The masks looked utterly ridiculous, with almost Grimm-like pointed edges and animalistic designs "complimented" by bright gemstones in the center of each. Their eyepieces all looked uniform as well, a shade of dark, bloody red. All of them were illuminated by the bright light of an open doorway.

"I apologize for the delay." The man glanced down at Roman, giving an even clearer view of his vein-covered skin. Roman grimaced in response. "You must be Roman Torchwick, correct?"

Roman clenched his fist, taking a step back. "Yes, I am. I take it you've heard of me? Not surprising, really." He grinned. "Cinder fill you in?"

The man shook his head. "I'm afraid not. In fact, this has nothing to do with her. At least, not yet."

Roman raised an eyebrow. "Then, you're with Atlas."

"Not at all."

Roman sighed. He didn't have time for this. He began to walk forward towards the man only for the soldiers to step in his path. Upon closer inspection, Roman noticed that all the soldiers were wielding identical arm bracelets that looked like light blue shields. Each of the shields had a bright blue gem in the middle as well.

One soldier in particular (a bright red gem adorning his mask) pushed Roman back towards the tube. "Back away from him, you Duelless scum!"

Roman growled back, pushing the soldier backwards into his compatriots, causing all of them to stumble slightly. Roman had dealt with enough cops to know how to deal with people like this. "Care to repeat that statement, officer?" He called him officer out of habit (lord knows he dealt with enough boys in blue for one lifetime), but it got the intended effect-the soldiers all seemed riled up.

The soldier raised his bracelet arm, reaching into one of his pockets. "You're asking for it-"

"Enough!" All of the soldiers snapped to attention, with the exception of the one facing Roman. The tall man glared down at the soldier, who slowly backed away and filed rank with the others. "We don't have time for petty squabbles, especially not with our new ally here."

Roman held his hands up. "Hold on a second, Speedy. No one said anything about allies here. In fact, you haven't told me where "here" is." Roman walked forward as the soldiers split in two, allowing him to stand toe to toe with the taller man. "I suggest you start talking."

"You are in no position to make demands here, Torchwick, despite what you may think," the man replied. "As well, I believe I have someone here you'd very much like to catch up with before we start talking."

"Who're you talking-"Roman stopped mid-sentence as he looked behind the man. His jaw dropped to the floor. Another figure stood in the doorway behind the group. Roman would know her two-toned hair anywhere. He'd last seen it hurtling off of an airship-not exactly a sight to forget. He thought she was gone for good. But there she was.

Neo.

Roman watched as Neo walked into the room, a pink parasol at her side. She stood beside him, a smirk on her face. Roman's shocked expression refused to fade as he looked back up at the man. "Just what the hell is going on?"

The man's stoic expression didn't budge an inch. "All your questions will be answered in due time. I have one of my own, however, and I think we both know the answer to it." He reached into his uniform's jacket, digging around inside. "Your world, the world of Remnant, will fall in time, to whomever is the most powerful, with or without you. Your "death" affects nothing in that regard. As long as you remained there, you would live and die at the whims of fate. What was it you said? 'Like it or not, the people that hired me are going to change the world?' "Roman's breathing sharpened, his "last words" echoing in his mind as it replayed his seemingly final moments. "You had no say in that, you know. You were naught but a pawn."

The man's hand stopped, slowly taking out a shield bracelet much like the ones the soldiers had. The biggest difference with this one was its bright red hue. "Here, it's an entirely different game. A game with not just the future of one world at stake, but those of many. A game where every move you make matters. A game where every choice you make matters." As he looked down at the shield, Roman briefly noticed out of the corner of his eyes that Neo had one of her own, with a pink gem in the center and a brown body surrounding it.

"You got this pitch too, huh?"

Neo merely smiled in response, the kind of smile a lion would give to its unsuspecting prey. Her usual smile. Roman looked back to the red shield as the man nodded. "She was very willing to work with us, on one condition."

"And what might that be?"

"That you do as well."

Roman groaned as Neo's smile grew wider. "So I'm locked in either way." He shook his head, a grin appearing on his face as he reached out for the shield. "Well, even if she didn't do that, I gotta say that this offer sounds pretty good to me." His eyes narrowed as his hand paused, hovering right over the shield. "But offers like these never come without a catch. What's yours?"

"I merely ask that you don our colors and carry out our mission," the man replied.

"And what might that be?"

The man smiled. Roman didn't think smiles could get any more sinister than Neo or Cinder level, but this was up there. "The unification and control of all worlds, under our banner. Even Remnant."

Roman knew this was his last chance to back out. He'd been offered power beyond compare, but he had it before, right before he "died". Who was to say this wouldn't end the same way? What if nothing changed?

…no. It had to. It all had to change.

And he was going to be the one to change it this time.

Roman grabbed the shield from the man's hand. "You've got yourself a deal, Mister…?"

The man turned away the instant Roman took the shield, as did his soldiers. "Akaba. Leo Akaba. You may call me the Professor." The group walked to the door, the soldiers taking point. As the doors began to close and the light began to fade, Akaba looked behind himself at the two former Remnants. "Welcome to Duel Academy. I hope you don't disappoint me." He reached into his jacket and pulled out a cane-Roman's cane-and tossed it into the room. Roman dove forward and caught it in his free hand, catching a glimpse of Akaba glaring down as the doors slammed shut, leaving Roman and Neo alone in the room. Roman stood back up, Melodic Cudgel safely in his grasp. "I hope you know what you're getting us into, Neo," he grumbled, looking back at his right hand lady. Neo merely giggled, a hand to her mouth in a silent motion of laughter. "Yeah, that was pretty overdramatic. Why do they always go for the theatrics?"

Roman looked his shield over, noticing something inside a slot on the side. Bringing it closer to his face, he realized that inside the shield was a deck of cards. As he reached for the deck, the shield shifted, opening a side compartment with a lone card lying inside. Roman took the card out, flipping it over. The purple card (he was starting to sense a pattern here) showed a picture of a flaming Phoenix, labeled "Blaze Fenix, The Burning Bombardment Bird."

"The hell?" Roman looked over at Neo, who held a card up of her own: a robotic woman with wires spewing from all directions, "El Shaddol Construct." Roman raised an eyebrow. "We're going to unite all the worlds and control everything in existence…with cards."

He was starting to wonder whether or not it would've been better if the Grimm had taken him out of his misery.


	2. Where We've Been and Where We Are

Ruby Rose was tired.

Not just any kind of tired, though. The kind of tired that makes you feel like you just ran a two year, nonstop marathon. The kind of tired that just radiates from one's very soul.

She wasn't the only one, though. Her whole team felt that strain, if not worse. The events of the past few weeks-the Vytal Festival, the Grimm invasion, the fall of Beacon-it had all taken its toll on the nation of Vale.

It took an even worse toll from those on the front lines.

Ruby glanced to her left as she walked forward, her feet crunching on the snow-covered ground of the island of Patch. Her friends Lie Ren and Nora Valkyrie, were chatting about the potential benefits of making pancakes with Nora's weapon, Magnhild. Nora seemed to be under the impression that the large hammer could serve as both the mixer and stovetop, while Ren was pointing out the need to not utterly fry the batter, and wondered if she would not just end up completely exploding it with Magnhild's grenade launching capabilities. Ruby smiled. It was nice to see the two of them slowly return to their usual routines after they had been more or less silent for the better part of the past few days (or, in Ren's case, more silent than usual).

Ruby looked to her right, and couldn't say the same for the man next to her. Jaune Arc, one of her best friends and closest confidants, looked like he was the walking dead. She couldn't blame him-in the span of less than a day, he had lost nearly everything he had. Beacon, the school he ran away from home and faked his own records to attend, was covered head to toe in creatures of Grimm. All he had to show for it now was his skill with a blade and his experiences.

But on the day of the invasion, he lost something more than that.

He lost Pyrrha Nikos.

Pyrrha was Jaune's best friend and fellow member of Team JNPR, the team to which Nora, Ren, and Jaune once belonged. She was extremely close to Jaune, taking time out of her day (and, from what Jaune had told Ruby, her night) to train him to be a strong huntsman. The two had grown close, and while it seemed obvious in retrospect that Pyrrha had a thing for Jaune, the two never actually became an item due to Jaune's obliviousness about the whole thing.

By the time he realized, it was too late.

During the invasion, something happened. Jaune was obviously reluctant to talk about the details preceding it, but what she had been able to get out of him was that Pyrrha went to fight the person who caused the invasion, a woman Ruby had encountered once before. Jaune was sent flying into the middle of the city before he could stop Pyrrha, and had asked-no, begged-Ruby and her teammate Weiss to find and save her.

They thought they'd be able to make it to her in time. Once Ruby reached the top of Beacon Tower, however, it was far too late. The woman struck an arrow right through Pyrrha's heart. Ruby remembered watching the once proud warrior fade into nothing but ash and dust, her mind screaming in horror and grief.

That's all she really could remember, though. After that, everything went white.

Pyrrha shouldn't have died that day. Ruby could have saved her, if she were just fast enough. Jaune had assured her that there wasn't anything anyone could have done, that the team had to soldier on to Haven to find out just what-or who-caused the events that lead to her death. She knew he was putting on a brave front for everyone's sake, though. She couldn't blame him. Everyone was.

Jaune wasn't the only one who lost Pyrrha as well. The news hit Nora especially hard, her cheery attitude dropping as she broke down into tears, and even Ren's stoic demeanor cracked for the briefest of moments when they were first told (according to Jaune, anyway).

Ruby saw Jaune giving her a confused look-had she really been staring at him for that long?-and snapped her attention forward as her thoughts continued. Even with Pyrrha gone, her three companions were still strong enough to stick together. Team JNPR through and through, whether they had four members or three. The same couldn't be said for Team RWBY. Ruby's sister, Yang, had lost an arm while fighting the White Fang, a terrorist group working alongside the mysterious woman and the Grimm. Given that she was a hand to hand fighter, this was a heavy blow for her physically and emotionally. Her exuberant energy had been replaced by a heavy depression, which Ruby couldn't blame her for one bit. Blake, Yang's partner, had vanished after the conflict was over without so much as a word, and the only remaining member of the team, Weiss, was taken back to her family's home in Atlas on her father's orders. The whole team had just broken apart, leaving only the two sisters to recover.

No matter what she tried, though, Ruby couldn't get through to Yang. She was so despondent that not even her father or their uncle Qrow could get her to even crack a smile. She had told Yang of her plans, hoping that it would incite her sister to join the quest towards Haven. This only made Yang's attitude sour more, though, and she refused to even look at Ruby as she left her room one last time. Before Ruby left the room, she could hear Yang mutter a barely-audible sentence:

"I can't even keep you by my side."

Those words haunted Ruby for the majority of the team's time on the road and had sent repeated intrusive thoughts through her mind. Could she have done more for Yang? Would it have been better off if she stayed home? Would her father be enough to keep Yang company?

Her father. He had been on her mind as much as Yang had. Taiyang was so happy to have both of his girls back home, and then Ruby left-how did that make him feel? Was he mad? Afraid? Proud? Ruby didn't even do much other than leave him a note, because she knew he would try to stop her. She wouldn't be able to handle that much of a guilt trip, even if it was unintentional. She could only hope he would understand in time.

Ruby looked ahead, gazing upon the seemingly endless terrain in front of her. Patch wasn't a large island in comparison to some others around the world, but traversing it on foot was proving far more taxing than anyone had anticipated. The team would have to find some other mode of transport somewhere along the way if they wanted to get to Haven. She just hoped that point was sooner rather than later.

The footsteps alongside the girl came to a quick halt. Ruby stumbled a bit as she stopped, glancing around at her friends. "Guys? What's up?"

Ren reached for his weapon, the pistol/blade combination known as StormFlower. "I just heard something," he replied, his voice low and quiet.

Nora held a tight grip on Magnhild, and Jaune drew his sword and shield, Crocea Mors. "Better safe than sorry," Jaune muttered. He took the rear as Ruby took point with her weapon, the scythe-rifle Crescent Rose. The air was silent as wind swept through the nearby trees. The four looked all around, trying to keep an ear open for any unusual noises.

Within seconds, they heard a roar and the thundering of footsteps from their left side. Ruby shouted, "Move!" as a pack of Beowolves (three in total) barreled down on the three of them. The quartet scattered, aiming their weapons at the Grimm. However, the Beowolves just kept running, going to the other side of the nearby forest and disappearing almost as quickly as they arrived. Ruby lowered Crescent Rose, turning in the direction the Grimm came from. "What was that all-"

The rest of the sentence couldn't even leave her mouth. She stepped back in horror as the others readied their weapons at the sight before them: a large dragon, colored red and white, standing in the middle of the forest, looming over the trees. A dark underbelly held an enormous gem, encased in a bony shell. What appeared to be two pairs of horns-or were they wings?-protruded from its back, the right side tall and adorned with two green gems on the back horn, and the left side shorter with a single red gem on its back horn. It had a large tail, spiked red and black, which was swaying back and forth. Its face was covered in a mask that was unmistakably similar to that of a Grimm, but colored gold and with a small blue gem lodged squarely in the middle. A skinless jaw-with horns protruding out of each side-showcased a mouthful of sharp fangs, which looked strong enough to tear into even a Nevermore with just one bite.

This wasn't any ordinary Grimm. This was something far more terrifying. It was something that was able to sneak up on the team with no warning whatsoever.

And it was _quick_.

It leapt from its post and landed in front of the four in an instant, sending trees and debris hurtling past them. Steam poured out of its mouth as it took heavy, ragged breaths. Now that it was closer, Ruby saw something riding on the dragon's head.

Wait. It wasn't something.

It was someone.

More specifically, it was a young boy who looked utterly and completely strange. Green hair with red highlights (with a lick of hair sticking up above his head), with a pair of goggles strapped to his eyes (one eye of which had a bright blue star). A white jacket with red and gold trimmings hung from an orange shirt, which was complimented by dark green pants with humongous pockets ("You could fit at least three scrolls in there," Ruby heard Jaune whisper to Ren and Nora, who quietly nodded in reply) and bright pink and orange shoes with black highlights. On the boy's arm was what looked like a glowing blade, with what appeared to be a single card laid on the surface of the blade.

Ruby's eyes were drawn to something else about the boy-a pendant that held a blue crystal, covered by two silver wings, a row of spikes, and a tiny gem at the very top. The pendant shone bright in the glistening sun, swaying back and forth as it slowly recovered from the impact of the dragon's landing.

…oh, right. She'd almost forgotten.

The dragon.

Ruby snapped out of her shock, raising Crescent Rose high and aiming it towards the twosome. "Ok, you! I don't know who you are, but if you think I'm gonna let you hurt my team, you've got another thing coming!" Following her lead, the others steadied their weapons as their leader continued. "Surrender now or we're gonna take you down!"

The boy immediately held up his hands. "Hold on a minute! I don't wanna fight you guys!" The dragon, for its part, lowered its head as far as it could go to allow the boy to climb off and to the ground. Jaune visibly flinched as it breathed another puff of smoke and steam, though Nora and Ren (Nora especially) looked more intrigued than worried. As the boy hopped off the dragon, he removed the card from the blade. The dragon faded away almost instantaneously, dissipating into particles of light.

…well. That was easier than expected.

"I didn't mean to frighten you," the boy continued, looking around at the group. "I just wanted to get those monsters off my tail! I almost became their lunch!" The boy chuckled nervously as he glanced at the different weapons. "So, uh…can you put those things away now?"

"I'm afraid we cannot," Ren answered, walking closer to the boy. "Before we do anything, I'm certain we'd all like some answers as to how you controlled that Grimm."

Nora nodded. "Yeah! That was awesome!" Her teammates shot her an annoyed glare. "Eheh. I mean. Terrifying. Absolutely terrifying. Not awesome at all." She made a small space with her index finger and thumb. "Just this much awesome."

Jaune shook his head. "Awesome or not, we almost skewered you! It'd probably for the best that you come clean so we don't end up in this situation again."

The boy scratched his head. "Sure, I'd love to explain. But, I've got a question for you guys first."

"Shoot." Ruby replied, quickly waving a hand to Nora in a "not like that" motion as she readied Magnhild's grenade launcher.

"What the heck is a Grimm?"

The team stared at the boy, dumbstruck. After a solid five seconds, it was Jaune who finally broke the silence.

"…what."


	3. The Tale of the Boy from Earth

Jaune had heard some tall tales in his lifetime, most of them from his own mouth. Hell, his path to Beacon was full of them, each lie more outlandish than the last.

But this?

This was just flat out unbelievable.

Team…what was their team name at this point? Team JRRN? Team JNRR? He'd have to worry about that later. The team, for lack of a better term, had made camp offroad after their encounter with the Beowolves and…well, that dragon thing. For the better part of the time since, everyone had been listening to their new guest, Yuya Sakaki ( _Seriously,_ Jaune thought, _who actually has a name like that?_ ) tell a story that even in the face of everything they had experienced sounded unbelievably fake. And why wouldn't it? This kid shows up on a giant Grimm (and then claims to not know what Grimm are) and expects them to believe that he's…

What exactly is he, again? From what he could pick up, Yuya was just an ordinary kid, maybe almost as old as Ruby. That would explain the ridiculous hair, and that outfit. No one older than that could look as ridiculously as-

Jaune looked down at his own outfit and those of his teammates, his eyes pausing as he looked at Nora's bright orange hair. He vaguely remembered a phrase about glass houses and stones and decided to get off that train of thought.

Yuya, in any case, was claiming to come from a world where there was no Dust, no hunters or huntresses, and-most surprisingly-no Grimm. As a result, his world, Earth (A planet named after the _ground_? Really?) relied on advances in machinery and technology exclusively over the course of its history. In particular, machines that could create hyper-realistic (even physical) holograms were commonplace! Jaune was astounded. He could barely even conceive of all the possibilities of a world like that!

Then, he found out that those machines were mostly used for something that sounded a bit less exciting: a trading card game known as Duel Monsters.

Gods, it sounded even stupider the more he thought about it.

Still, the game was apparently popular enough to be intertwined with daily life, and even enough to have tournaments the size of-if not bigger than-the Vytal Festival. Supposedly thousands of attendees flock in day after day to watch what Yuya called "Action Duels", which took the card game and amplified it on the scale of a blockbuster movie with the aforementioned hologram tech. As well, the kid was a "dueltainer", someone who used Action Duels to entertain the audience beyond just the visual spectacle of the event. Jaune thumbed through the cards that Yuya had lent him, his confusion growing with each passing card. He could get how these "Performapal" cards could be fun to watch, but what the heck is a "Timegazer Magician" supposed to do? Watch the time?

Still, this story this would explain the "Grimm" the boy had summoned earlier. Jaune flipped over another card-speak of the devil. There it was-"Odd Eyes Pendulum Dragon." A shiver ran up his spine as he remembered the team's first good look at the thing. It was freaky as all hell, no matter what Yuya (or for that matter, Nora) said. Still, he had to admit-a hologram you could touch and even ride on would make something as simple as a card game a lot more appealing to a wider audience (given that they weren't scared out of their minds like Jaune and the others were). That much, at least, made some small measure of sense.

The part about the multiple dimensions was where things got a lot harder to follow.

According to Yuya, some evil army known as "Duel Academy" had invaded his home from a place called…Duel Academy. Not the most original naming scheme, but apparently their power and numbers made up for their lack of creativity. This army had invaded a dimension known as…Ixees? Exzeezs? Jaune couldn't remember the exact pronunciation. Either way, Duel Academy had invaded that dimension before coming to Yuya's, which he kept referring to as "Standard." This gave Jaune a moment of pause. What would that make Remnant's dimension? "Standard 2?"

Jaune tossed those thoughts to the side as he tried to keep up. Yuya was describing the Academy's supposed ability to turn their defeated enemies into Duel Monsters cards, though Yuya had no proof of this as any victims as any evidence of that power was back on Earth. What's more, the Academy had tried to kidnap one of Yuya's closest friends, Yuzu Hiragi, but she was taken away somehow by another person from something called the "Synchro Dimension", and-

Yeah, Jaune was completely lost at this point.

It seemed most of the team was following along better than he was. Ruby was enthralled, hanging on every word as Yuya spun his tale. Nora seemed to tune in and out, really getting interested when the "action" started. Ren just watched passively, taking in the tale with only a few "hm"s and "hrm"s here and there. Jaune on the other hand just stopped trying after a certain point-it was just too much to take in at once. The only shared reaction between the three of them was when Yuya got to the Duel Academy invasion. Jaune had to admit (and he could tell everyone else felt the same), it brought up really unpleasant memories of the Beacon invasion-not that Yuya would know.

On the plus side, Yuya genuinely didn't seem all that dangerous. He was telling his story in earnest, and nothing about the way he told it gave off any red flags. He seemed to have an electric personality, his demeanor dropping only when he talked about the invasion by Duel Academy. In all honesty, it seemed kind of like Ruby's, now that Jaune thought about it. All in all, Yuya seemed harmless.

As harmless as a monster-riding, dimension-travelling clown could be, he supposed.

Yuya's energetic hand gestures and movements slowed to a halt as he wrapped up his story. "-and then I wound up getting chased by those monsters! I didn't know whether or not my duel disk would work right in another dimension, but I guess Reiji gave it some good upgrades!" He laughed nervously, scratching the back of his head. "I probably should've guessed an even bigger monster would freak people out, but I really didn't think there was anyone here! Sorry for scaring you guys."

Ruby shrugged, nabbing the deck from Jaune as he moved to hand it back to Yuya. "Don't worry about it. If we were in the same situation, we probably would've done the same thing," she replied, waving the deck around dramatically as she spoke.

"Whoa, Ruby," Jaune warned, "Be careful with those! We don't want to accidentally have that dragon pop up in the middle of camp!"

"That would be impossible." Ren gestured to Yuya's…what was it again? Jaune tried to remember the name of the shield-like weapon that Yuya was fiddling with. Duel something. "Unless the card is placed on an active duel disk, it's more or less useless."

Nora nodded, a smug grin overtaking her face. "That's right-and besides, it's a Pendulum monster! It has to be special summoned! Weren't you paying attention?"

 _Resist urge to glare. Resist urge to glare._

"Yeah, I was," Jaune answered slowly. "But it's…a lot to take in, you know. Some details slip through. This all pretty difficult to believe, so hopefully you'll forgive me if I don't just yet."

Ren nodded. "As much as your story intrigues me, I'm afraid I have to agree with Jaune."

"Aw, but Ren! How can you not believe him?" Nora kicked up some snow excitedly as she spoke. "It's too cool to be fake! It had action, adventure, suspense- "

"That's my issue with it. It all seems too orderly. Too…well plotted out."

"Well, that's what stories're like, Ren," Ruby interjected. She handed the deck of cards back to Yuya, who placed it into a compartment on his duel disk. "They're kind of designed that way."

"I know, Ruby. But it just seems strange for it to be as cut and dry as it is. Things are rarely so simple."

Jaune grimaced. He called all that _simple?_

Yuya looked at the team, a downcast expression appearing on his face. "Trust me, I understand. I know it's weird. I'd like to show you more proof, honest," Yuya continued, tapping his duel disk's central console. "The problem is, I can't get into contact with the rest of my group, and they're the only other ones who would be able to back me up. If they were here on…"

"Remnant," Jaune offered.

"Yeah, Remnant." Yuya frowned as the "call failed" screen flashed on his disk. "If they were on Remnant, this would work because our disks were redesigned to connect to each other."

"What makes you say it's not just busted from the Grimm attack?"

"If it was, then my whole disk wouldn't be working." Yuya sighed, looking up towards the sky as he continued. "Or maybe they're just too far away to have it be useful. Either way, I guess I'm on my…" Yuya paused, squinting as he looked up above. "…hey, you guys said most of those Grimm things are black and white, right?"

"Yeah," Jaune replied. They hadn't gotten to tell much of their side of the story yet, but the team had at least filled Yuya in on the basics of the Grimm before he started his whole "epic". "Why do you ask?"

"Look."

Jaune looked up, as did the others. There really wasn't much to see. There were no clouds in the sky, and the sun was beaming down right on top of the camp.

Like, directly on top of the camp. It was surprisingly well-centered.

Actually, it seemed like it was…getting closer? That couldn't be right.

No, it definitely was. Jaune put a hand over his eyes. Something was definitely off about-

…since when did the sun have _wings_?

Ruby grabbed Crescent Rose, bringing it into scythe mode as quickly as she could. "We need to move."

Almost as if on cue, the "sun" sped up, barreling down with a loud whistling noise following it. Ren and Nora grabbed their weapons, and Jaune readied his blade. Yuya, for his part, backed up behind the team while placing his duel disk on his arm. The central console lit up, producing a presumably holographic blade in front of it.

"Now might be a good time to bring out that Pendulum whatchacallit, Yuya," Jaune muttered.

"I can't just yet," Yuya replied, drawing five cards from the top of his deck. "I need to get the right monsters to set the Pendulum Scale, remember?"

...uh.

"Yeah, of course. I know. It…just would be nice, is all."

Ruby kept her eyes trained on the ball of light as she backed up. "On the count of three, everyone jump back as far as you can!"

"Right," the four answered back. Nora stepped next to Yuya arm outstretched.

"…what're you doing?"

"Don't worry about it."

Ruby readied herself. "One- "

The "sun" sped up even faster, its features becoming more apparent-it was definitely some kind of bird-like creature, with an orange body made of what looked like pure flame and a dark black suit of armor covering the chest and shoulder areas. Something-some _things_ , maybe?-was standing on top of the bird's shoulder blades, but Jaune couldn't quite make out what exactly.

Not that he exactly had the time to focus on the finer details, what with the flaming bird nearly upon them.

"-TWOTHREEJUMP!" Ruby exclaimed, suddenly leaping backwards. The rest of the team followed suit, with Nora in particular grabbing Yuya by the back of his shirt and pulling him back with her. The bird slammed into the ground, kicking up a shroud of mist as the snow around it melted into pools of water. The five safely landed a short distance away, though Yuya stumbled as he tried to right himself.

"Heya, Red!" a voice called out from within the mist. Ruby's eyes widened, her grip on Crescent Rose tightening. As the mist began to clear, the bird let out a deafening cry, rattling the nearby trees. Sparks flew from its wings, leaving embers in whatever patches of ground were free of snow. The figures on the bird became much more clear as well; a man in a red suit with white trimmings and a cane, and a woman in split yellow and blue with a parasol. "Aren't you a sight for sore eyes?"

"No…" Jaune looked over to Ruby, her silver eyes locked onto the two with more anger than he had ever seen in her before. "You-you can't be…I saw you-"

"What, die?" The man hopped off the bird, landing with a small splash in the melted snow. "You of all people should know better than that, Red! After all, I told you myself." He grinned as the woman took a place beside him, placing the parasol over her shoulders as a small smile appeared on her face. "I do quite a few things pretty well. I lie, I cheat, I steal…"

The man raised his cane, the bottom flipping up into a reticle as the team found themselves looking down a gun barrel.

"And I _**survive."**_


	4. Action

Yuya Sakaki was not having the best week.

In the span of a few days, he'd somehow managed, in no particular order, to:

1\. Get caught up in an interdimensional war (finding out one of his friends was from the invading side in the process),

2\. Find out he had doppelgangers in at least two of those warring dimensions,

3\. Become _possessed_ by the spirit of someone from one of those dimensions,

4\. Discover that an important tournament he spent the past few months training for was a front to find people to fight on the front lines of the war, and

5\. Get stuck in a completely different dimension from any of the aforementioned ones.

…now that Yuya thought about it, that ordered itself pretty well.

In any case, with all of that safely behind him, Yuya thought that the worst had passed. He may not have wound up in the right place, but hey, at least the locals were friendly! Well, for the most part, anyway. Jaune and Ren seemed like they were humoring him more than anything else, but Nora and Ruby seemed to genuinely believe his story. Maybe they could help out in the fight against Duel Academy. They seemed pretty strong too, even if they didn't have any Duel Monsters cards to fight with.

Things were looking up for Yuya.

Until he looked up, anyway.

Not one minute later, he had a gun pointed at his face. Well, a cane, but it was pretty obvious that the hollowed-out barrel inside wasn't there to make the cane lighter. Yuya looked at the man holding the cane. He recognized the outfit that the man and his companion wore immediately, and both the duel disks they held on their wrists and the monster beside them confirmed it.

They were from Duel Academy.

His hand gripped the five cards he had just drawn tight. There wasn't any other explanation for this, at least not one he could think of at the moment. But how'd they make it to this world? Weren't they going to invade Synchro?

A fleeting thought sent shivers down Yuya's spine. What if they already did?

Yuya looked to the others. Even he could tell that they were holding onto their weapons tighter than a vice, and Ruby especially seemed rattled by the newcomers. _Specifically_ by the newcomers. He noticed Jaune in particular shooting fleeting glances at the giant bird (Yuya didn't recognize the card, but he was sure it was some kind of fusion monster), but for the most part their attention was trained on the duo. The man had mentioned something red…was he talking about Ruby?

Just what was going on here?

The silence between the groups lasted for a few seconds longer, before the man lowered his cane with a very loud, pronounced sigh. "Oh, come _**on.**_ I figured I'd leave you speechless, but I wasn't expecting Neo-levels here." The girl (presumably Neo) shot him a glare, aiming her parasol in his direction before jabbing it forward. The man jumped backwards, his chest coming within a hair's breadth of meeting the tip of the parasol. "Hey, watch it!" The man pushed the parasol away. "I didn't cheat death just to get killed because you don't have a sense of humor." Even with no sound coming out of her mouth, Yuya could tell that Neo was more than likely growling at the man. Her attentions, however, quickly turned to Yuya himself, who took a step back. She tugged on the man's sleeve. "What?" She pointed ahead, and the man glanced straight at Yuya. "Well, who do we have-"

"Torchwick…" The man paused, and tilted his head slightly to face Ruby. She took a step forward, stopping quickly as Torchwick raised his cane again. "How did you-you were-"

"Eaten? Devoured whole by that Griffon? Turned into Grimm chow?" He grinned, shrugging. "Who knows? Maybe it was a little bit of divine intervention? Maybe-"

A shot rang past Torchwick's head, skimming off a small bit of fabric from his hat as it zoomed by. Yuya turned to see Ren, Storm Flower at the ready and a determined expression on his face. Jaune looked like he was about to scream bloody murder, while Nora gave Ren a quick thumbs up. Ruby was still tense, though, adjusting Crescent Rose into rifle mode. Torchwick's grin morphed into a scowl as he raised his cane. "Fine. You want to skip to the good part?" A red glow began to emanate from the cane's barrel. "Me too."

With that, Torchwick fired at the group, a red flare erupting from the cane. Ruby fired Crescent Rose at the exact same time, causing an explosion as the two shots collided in mid-air. The force of the blast nearly sent Yuya flying off his feet, but he and the others managed to hold their ground as the ensuing cloud of smoke billowed outward. Yuya held up his arms to block the smoke, coughing as it enveloped the team. He quickly noticed his duel disk flashing and glanced down at it. A pop-up blinked in and out with a simple message: "Would you like to begin the duel with R. Torchwick? Y/N"

Suddenly, the phoenix burst through the smoke, with Torchwick in tow on top of its armor, nearly clotheslining Jaune in the process. The blonde swordsman managed to use his shield to block the flames from the bird's wing just in the nick of time, his shield pointed upwards as he tried to avoid the embers. The phoenix hovered in mid-air a short distance away, blasting fireballs from its mouth. Ren and Ruby both began to fire at the flames, knocking the balls off course into the snow and away from the others.

Yuya began to run towards the duo, but a shout of "Stay back!" from Ren stopped him in his tracks.

"But I can't just stand here! I can help-"

"Don't worry your spiky little head, Yuya!" Nora smirked as she lightly pushed the boy aside. "We got this all under control. Jaune, stay right there!" Nora zipped past Yuya (before he even realized she moved) and darted towards Jaune, Magnhild gripped tight in her hands. "Don't move! I wanna do that move from _The Revengers_!"

Jaune's eyes widened as Nora stampeded her way towards him. "Whoa, hold on, Nora! Just give me a sec-"

Nora leapt into the air and landed on top of Jaune's shield, eliciting a quick "Ow!" from its owner.

"Liftoff!"

Jaune groaned in exasperation, but took his cue and pushed the shield upwards, catapulting Nora into the air. The huntress let out a cheery "woo-hoo!" as she flew towards the phoenix and raised her hammer high. However, a pink and black blur came into her line of vision just before she brought Magnhild down. A very familiar parasol opened up immediately after, and the hammer came to a halt on top of it. As a resounding gong rang through her ears, Nora fired off a couple of grenades, using the recoil to launch herself backwards. The parasol bounced the grenades into the air, where they quickly exploded in an electrical eruption. Nora gritted her teeth as Neo smiled innocently, the two landing back onto the ground with a thud.

Jaune ran ahead to help Nora, but paused as he heard a growl from close by. He turned around and saw a pack of Beowolves coming out from the forest, likely the same ones that Yuya had scared off earlier. The Grimm glanced at the scene before them, the lead one focusing its attention on the only thing not locked in battle: Jaune. His shoulders slumped as the Grimm made their way forward. "Oh, you have got to be kidding me."

Yuya watched on in awe as the battle raged, narrowly dodging a fireball as it fell to the ground next to him. This battle was like nothing he had ever seen before-even he had to admit, this gave Action Duels a run for their money in the thrill department. But even as he watched the hunters move and fight, the pit in his stomach grew. He knew they said they'd be fine-and they seemed to be proving it-, and he knew this was a lot more dangerous of a battle than he had ever been in, but he couldn't help but feel the pit get deeper and deeper. The past few days had taught him that nothing was ever as easy as it seemed. He looked at his disk again, the pop-up still flashing. Yuya reached for his belt with his free hand, poking around the various box-shaped pockets. He drew his hand out from one of them, and held up a card with what looked like strange circuitry on it.

"…maybe…"

Torchwick laughed uproariously as chaos unfolded around him, his arms outstretched wide. "Isn't this fun, Red? Think about it! Monsters even more powerful than the strongest Grimm, at my disposal! Under my control! I mean, can you even imagine how good this kind of power feels? I could take on anyone! The White Fang, Ironwood, and especially that bitch Ci-"He stopped, glancing down at the two gunslingers who were fighting off the fireballs. "Are any of you people even listening to me? Honestly." He tapped his foot on the armor beneath him. "Hey, birdbrain!" The phoenix looked up at Torchwick, who pointed his cane down towards Ruby. "Get her attention."

The phoenix looked down towards Ruby, flames growing in its maw. The quick stop to the barrage caused Ruby to fire at nothing, with the sudden recoil sending her to the ground. Crescent Moon slid out of her hands, landing at Yuya's feet. She looked up, her eyes widening in horror as she saw the phoenix looming over her. As Ren attempted to run to Ruby, flames from the bird's wings fell into a circle around her. The flames erupted upwards, creating a wall of fire that burned Ruby's left hand as she tried to reach for Crescent Rose. She recoiled and screamed in pain, a horrifying sound that echoed throughout the forest.

That was it.

Yuya had waited long enough.

The boy ran towards Jaune, who had just sliced off the head of the last of the Beowolf pack and was looking in Ruby's direction with a terror-filled expression. "Jaune," Yuya called out, "your shield!"

Without even looking at the boy, Jaune raised the shield over his head. "Which way?"

"Straight ahead!"

"You got it!"

Yuya jumped, landing on the shield. Jaune pushed up with all his might, launching Yuya upwards towards the ring of fire. Yuya held up his disk, gritting his teeth as he began his descent. He saw Roman's disk glow, and at that instant, he pressed the "Y" button on the prompt. "Please, let this work!"

Torchwick was none too concerned about the flying boy, his focus solely on Ruby. He leaned down, towering over the girl as she stood up to face him. She curled her hands into fists, her burned hand twitching in pain but still locked into a ball. "Still got some spunk, kid! I'm impressed." Torchwick mockingly tipped his hat as the phoenix began to open its mouth, embers spewing from the sides of its jaw. His smile was a wider one than Ruby had ever seen him have. "Now, just so we're clear on this, Red…" The man's eyes shone bright with fury and malice. "…this is _**extremely**_ personal."

Ruby stared him straight in the eyes as flames began to obscure her vision.

Then, right as she could feel the heat on her face, she heard a voice.

"Action field spell activated. Cross Over."

The flames vanished-all of the flames did, in fact. The fires burning around them, the ring, and even the burst from the bird itself.

Torchwick's smile vanished just as quickly. The phoenix let out a pained cry and exploded into a burst of light, leaving nothing but air below its former owner. As he fell, square, blue platforms appeared all throughout the immediate area. These platforms split up the combatants-Nora and Neo were now at different heights from each other, and Ren and Jaune were now equally high-up, though far apart. A platform materialized right before Torchwick hit the ground, a hollow "thunk" echoing as he landed. "Argh!"

Ruby looked up at her teammates. No platform had appeared underneath her; rather, she was still in the ring of scorched earth as before, with less fire, thankfully. She cupped her hands over her mouth, shouting out, "Are you guys ok?"

"We're fine," Jaune called back, "but what about you?"

"I'm-"She paused, looking behind her. She saw Crescent Rose lying on the ground and dashed towards it, grabbing it with her left hand. She yelped in pain, dropping it to the ground with a clatter. She paused for a moment before using her right hand to pick it up. "…I'm fine."

"…uh, guys?" Ruby looked over to Nora's platform. Neo wasn't making any moves (instead seemingly trying to block the sun out with her parasol), but Nora seemed to be scouring the area. "Anyone know where Yuya went?"

"Look to the skies above, ladies and gentlemen!" Far above the cluster of platforms was a solitary square, and Ruby could spot a familiar-looking silhouette standing atop it. "As much of a spectacle as all that was, I'm pretty sure none of you would exactly call that "fun", right?" The shadow hopped off the platform, flipping in the air as it landed on the centermost platform of the cluster.

Yuya spread his arms out wide as he stood up straight. His left hand still held the same five cards he drew at the start of the fight. A ball of light, surrounded by what looked like Duel Monsters cards, hovered above him. "That's why I'm pleased to announce that for the first time ever, the world of Remnant will experience the action, the thrills, and the fun that the Standard Dimension has been enjoying for years and years! You're going to experience the spectacular showstopper that is the You Show School brand…" Yuya shot an arm into the air, pointing towards the heavens. "Action Duel!"

"What the hell are you going on about, kid? Who are you?" Yuya lowered his arms and faced Torchwick. The older man dusted off his outfit, picking up a card from the duel disk. "And what did you do to my Blaze Fenix?"

"Oh, is that what it's called? That's good to know!" Yuya smirked, raising up the arm his duel disk rested on. "And for the record, my name's Yuya Sakaki, and the field reset when we agreed to the duel. I figured it out once I saw that my duel disk reacted to your's. Didn't you notice?" The dirty look on Torchwick's face was answer enough. "You must be really new over at Duel Academy, huh?"

"Shut up. I didn't agree to anything here." The joking tone was gone from the man's voice. He glared down at Ruby, who held Crescent Rose aloft in a threatening manner. "Do you have any idea what I've been put through because of her? The chances I've lost because of her meddling? The life I almost lost because she couldn't keep her nose out of other people's business?! Do you have _**any**_ idea what you just took away from me?!" Ruby was stunned. Had she really driven him to that much anger? That much hatred?

"No. I don't." Yuya glanced down at Ruby. He couldn't see too much detail on her hand, but it looked bad. Really bad. "But that doesn't give you the right to take away anything from anyone else. Plus, if we're being honest," Yuya added, "I've seen people from Duel Academy that still have some good in them, that still have a chance to learn from their mistakes. You _definitely_ don't fit into that category."

Yuya could almost hear Torchwick break a tooth from grinding his teeth so hard.

"…you know what?" Torchwick put the Blaze Fenix card into a slot on the duel disk. "Fine. I'll humor you. You know why?" Yuya shook his head. "You've managed to do something that, up to this point, only Red has successfully been able to do."

"Oh? And what might that be?"

Torchwick drew five cards from the top of his deck, his gaze piercing through the air towards Yuya. "Make me want to murder someone as slowly and painfully as humanly possible." He balled his free hand into a fist. "Maybe beating you at your own game will teach you not to screw with grown-ups, kid." As he spoke, Neo leaped away from Nora (who responded with an indignant "Hey!") and towards her companion. Torchwick held out a hand as she drew closer. "No. I'll handle this. You take care of her team. I want them down and out before this is over." He turned his gaze to Ruby. "I'll take care of you soon, Red! I've just got a pest problem I've got to deal with first."

Yuya raised his hand back to the sky. "You might find this pest is a bit more persistent than most!" He drew his index finger and thumb together. Roman readied his duel disk. "Alright, it's time to start the show! Say it with me, everyone! Five!"

Nora raised Magnhild to the sky, smirking as Neo landed back in front of her, parasol at the ready. "Four!"

Jaune shook his head. This was ridiculous. Utterly ridiculous. But… "Three!"

Ren sighed. There was strange, and then there was _this_. Still. "Two."

Ruby planted Crescent Rose on the ground. Her left hand still hurt a bit, but she managed to give a thumbs up with it nonetheless. She wasn't sure why; she could probably have done it far easier with her right hand. But seeing the look on Torchwick's face was worth it. "One!"

Yuya looked down at his new friends. He wasn't sure when he was going to get to the Synchro Dimension. He wasn't sure when he was going to find Yuzu. He wasn't even sure how well he'd do in this duel.

But he was sure he was going to have fun all the way through.

"Action…" Yuya snapped his fingers, and the ball of light dispersed across the field, sending cards flying in all directions.

The curtain was up. The show had begun. It was time to…

"…Duel!"


	5. Duel!

_**Quick author's note here-I just wanted to thank everyone very kindly for all the support, kind words, and favorites/follows/etc! I'm surprised this story took off as much as it did, but I'm very happy for it. This chapter is a lot longer than most and one of my first experiments in flipping between perspectives on a major scale, so I apologize if there's any inconsistencies or weirdness to it. I went over it at least five times and shared it with friends to make sure, so I THINK it's good to go, but don't be surprised if tiny details get edited or added in within the next few days of this chapter's posting. Hopefully you all enjoy the chapter! This was a lot of fun to write, so hopefully it's really fun to read!**_

 _ **-LLawliet122**_

* * *

This was bad.

This was unbelievably bad.

Qrow took his eyes off those four for just a moment-not even that, a _**second**_ -and something went wrong.

He knew he shouldn't have. He had a duty to these kids. Sure, they were strong enough to defend themselves (the encounter with that kid and his dragon showed that well enough), but when Torchwick, his associate, and the phoenix showed up, the hunter should've known it would've been too much for them. He was _this_ close to stepping in. He could've ended the fight in an instant.

Those damned lights in the sky were the only thing stopping him.

They appeared from nowhere. Streaks of light beamed through the clouds, splitting apart as they reached the center of the sky. They touched down in Vale, Atlas, even Mistral-he could've sworn he saw at least three beams hit there-among other places before vanishing just as quickly as they came. What the hell were they? Did they have anything to do with-

The bloodcurdling scream that rang through the forest snapped Qrow out of his thoughts.

He recognized the voice behind it immediately, and it made his blood run cold.

Ruby.

No.

Dammit, no!

Qrow flew, speeding towards the source of the scream. He spotted a ring of fire below him, his niece clutching her hand in pain within it. She looked like she couldn't even hold her weapon, let alone reach it with the fire surrounding her. Qrow looked all over the battlefield, but no one else was close enough to do anything about it. That red-headed maniac hovered above her, the phoenix ready to deal the finishing blow. There was no time for indecision. He was the only one who could save them. Save _her_.

Suddenly, a blur obscured his view.

A multicolored blur, with a green tint. The only thing he could make out clearly was a crystal necklace, swinging into the air as the blur zoomed past.

Then, everything vanished.

Well, not everything. The fire vanished, leaving Ruby free to grab her weapon (as painful as it looked). The phoenix vanished, leaving Torchwick flat on his ass. These weird platforms appeared in mid-air, surrounding the battlefield and displacing the fighters. One even appeared right underneath Qrow, obscured from the others' view by a very conveniently placed tree. Talk about your small miracles.

Qrow couldn't see too much from his new vantage point, but he could make out the blur from earlier. It was that kid, the dragon summoner. Qrow wasn't sure what he was saying, only making out a few words of what seemed to be a pretty long speech. "Duel." "Fun." "Show."

He watched as a ball of light appeared over the kid's head. His brow furrowed. Did this kid have something to do with those lights from earlier? It could be a coincidence, but he couldn't be sure just yet. Once all of this was said and done, the two of them were gonna have a little chat. In any case, whatever he was saying was pissing Torchwick off, and keeping the criminal's attention off of Ruby. At the very least, the hunter would have to thank the kid for that.

After the interrogation, of course.

Qrow slowly landed on the platform, grunting quietly in pain as he transformed back into his normal, human form. He could faintly hear Ruby and her team counting down with the kid, who snapped his fingers when the countdown hit zero. At that moment, the ball of light dispersed, projectiles flying out of the ball and across the sky. Qrow caught one as it came near. He held the projectile up, and raised an eyebrow. It was a card, decorated with the image of a man surrounded by sparkles.

This was…strange.

Yeah, he definitely would have to talk to this kid.

For now, though…he was gonna watch the show.

* * *

He really hoped he wouldn't regret this decision.

Yuya reached into his hand of cards, looking over them towards Torchwick. A holographic sign reading "4000" hovered next to the man, mirroring one on his own side. He didn't know what kind of deck Torchwick had, but most Duel Academy grunts had the same deck archetype, Ancient Gear. He at least knew some of what those decks had in store. It also helped that the so-called "master criminal" seemed very new to the game, so he was liable to make some rookie mistakes. Then again, Torchwick wasn't just any ordinary grunt-Duel Academy had given him his own specific fusion card, after all, and they more than likely would have trained him in dueling in some form or another before sending him out. Yuya figured that it was best to play it safe for now and work on figuring out Torchwick's strategy.

The boy looked over at the others, who were fighting against that Neo lady a fair distance away. They battled with more precision, power, and speed than he could even comprehend. Yuya had no idea how they could still move after the exhausting fight they had put up against the Blaze Fenix, but as long as they could keep them away from Torchwick (and he could keep Torchwick away from them), both of their battles would go pretty well.

Hopefully.

"I'll start us off, if you don't mind!" Yuya drew a card from his hand, flipping it towards Torchwick. It showed the image of a pink hippo, adorned in a top hat, a pink vest, and a polka-dotted bowtie. "First, I'm going to bring my Performapal Hip Hippo out onto the stage!" He slapped the card down on his duel disk, a bright flash of light appearing on a platform just below him. The hippo from the card burst out from the light, striking a pose as it tipped its hat forward (800/800). He placed a card into a slot on his disk, the virtual image of it flickering for a moment before vanishing. "Since I can't attack on the first turn, I'll just place one card face down and end my turn!"

Torchwick scoffed, drawing a card from his deck. "That's the best you can do? A pig?"

"Hippo, actually," Yuya corrected as the hippo in question appeared to mimic Torchwick's scoff right back at him. "And my Performapal here can do a lot more than you might expect!" He brought his goggles down, a smile forming on his face. "Alley-oop!" Yuya flipped forward off of his platform, landing on the hippo upon his descent. "Now, allow me to give you a crash course in action dueling, Mr. Torchlick! Let's move, Hip Hippo!"

"It's TorchWICK, you little-" Torchwick quickly ducked, his sentence cut off as the hippo and its rider leapt over his head onto a nearby platform, bouncing off of it towards higher ground. After bouncing on a few of the platforms, Yuya spotted his quarry: a card stuck edge-first into a tree on the other side of the field. Unfortunately for him, Torchwick noticed the card as well-and it was his turn.

"My move, pipsqueak!" Torchwick held a card up, a wide smirk on his face. The card showed some kind of machine, cylindrical with lots of grooves and indents that looked almost like engine turbines. "I'm going to summon R-Genex Accelerator in attack mode!" He slammed the card onto the disk, and the machine appeared on the battlefield (1500/1900). With a better glance at its interior, Yuya could see what seemed to be a deep chasm within it, along with…

Wait, was that a black hole?!

Torchwick's smirk turned toothy as he raised up another card. "It gets better, kid! I'm gonna play the spell card "Machine Assembly Line!" He slipped the card into the disk, and as the card flipped upwards, a shimmering light overtook the area surrounding the Accelerator. When the light faded, it was exactly what the card said: an assembly line, with scattered parts strewn throughout. Wires hung from rafters with no ceiling, and a large mold-maker whirred and buzzed next to the assembly line itself. "This card gives my Accelerator an extra two-hundred attack points," Torchwick boasted as the Accelerator glowed golden for a moment (1700/1900). "Not that it especially needs it to take out that stupid hippo of yours, but it never hurts to have some extra firepower!"

The Accelerator began to whir, and the circular grooves started to spin. Yuya could see the black hole starting to rotate as well, a dark ball of energy gathering within it. He had to act fast. Yuya gave a quick kick to the hippo's side, and the Performapal reacted like lightning. It bounded between platforms, but Yuya saw that the energy ball had quickly turned into an energy wave. Torchwick held his hand up into the air. "Ready…aim…" He dropped his hand quickly, shouting "Fire!" The Accelerator erupted, a black and purple wave bursting out of it in almost a nanosecond. It homed in like a heat-seeking missile, barreling towards Yuya.

Right before it hit, however, Yuya reached the tree and swiped the card. "I activate the Action Card Evasion!" The card shone bright, and right before the Accelerator's energy wave hit the Hip Hippo, it vanished. Torchwick growled, his free hand forming into a fist. "Hey, no need to get mad!" Yuya held up his hands defensively. "I'm just showing you what an action duel is all about! There's plenty of these cards to go around! But, just to be safe…"

Yuya pressed a button on his disk, and the facedown he had placed previously flipped upwards. "I'm going to activate the quick-play spell card, Hippo Carnival!" The card flashed bright for a moment, and from the light came a trio of dancing hippos, decked out in grass skirts, gaudy outfits, and lots of feathers (0/0). Confetti dropped down around them as they danced in front of Yuya and the Hip Hippo. "Now, you can't attack anything but these three hippos until they're all destroyed-but why would you even want to? They're just having a party!"

Torchwick glared, sliding two cards facedown into his disk. "I end my turn." His gaze was locked tight onto Yuya. "Let's see what you've got, kid."

Yuya reached to draw, but a loud noise distracted him-an explosion, followed by the tell-tale cheering of a certain orange-haired maiden. Nora flew by, riding on the head of her hammer as she crossed the two duelists' path. "Hi, Yuya!" She called, waving as she dropped out of sight. The hippos paused their dance, watching in confusion for a moment before returning to their groove. Nora was quickly followed by Neo, who jumped across the nearby platforms on a beeline towards Nora. The others in the team darted after her, including Ruby, who stopped on one of the platforms. She looked over to Torchwick, sticking her tongue out at the thief before jumping away. Yuya noticed she was holding her weapon in her right hand-was she ambidextrous?

Torchwick snarled, reaching into his coat. "Red, didn't anyone ever teach you and your friends not to interrupt people?" He began to draw his cane from within the coat. "It's time someone taught you some manners, you little-"

"Hey!" Before Torchwick could do anything, however, the two remaining hippo dancers appeared right in front of him. The criminal jumped back, grimacing as he looked past the hippos towards his opponent. Yuya drew his card, jumping off the Hip Hippo with a pointed thud onto the platform floor. "I'm your opponent, here! Leave them out of this!" Torchwick paused, looking back and forth between Yuya and the battle between Neo and the others, Neo glancing back in return. "What's the matter?" Yuya brought his goggles back onto his forehead, smirking. "You were gonna teach me to respect my elders, weren't you?"

Torchwick let out a sigh, placing the cane back in the coat. "…take your damn turn."

"With pleasure!" Yuya looked through his hand, a frown growing on his face. Out of all the cards he had in his hand, only one was equal in attack to Torchwick's Accelerator, and only of them was a Pendulum monster-his Timegazer Magician-and it wasn't strong enough to survive on its own against that Accelerator, especially with that attack bonus. On the plus side, the Accelerator couldn't attack anything but the dancing hippos, so he could spare to be on the defensive for a little while longer.

"I'm gonna summon my Performapal Salutiger!" Yuya placed the card on the disk, and a cartoon tiger in a band maestro's outfit appeared next to Yuya, offering the other monsters a salute as it arrived (1700/500). "Its attack points are equal to your Accelerator's, so I can't do anything just yet-but don't worry! He'll get to lead my monsters on parade pretty soon!" He took a bow, and all the monsters on his side of the field followed suit. "With that, I end my turn!"

Torchwick stared at Yuya's side of the field for a moment as they held the bow. Then, he started to laugh. He put a hand to his face, trying desperately to hold back the laughter as he spoke. "Y-you really-oh, my GOD! I can't believe he was right! You're a goddamned showboat! I don't know why I got so worked up over you!"

Yuya raised an eyebrow. "He who?"

Torchwick shook his head. "Oh, this is too good! Sucks, though, since now I owe that little punk a tidy sum once I'm done here."

Yuya stiffened up, his glance narrowing. "Who are you talking about?"

"You really can't tell?" Torchwick tapped the side of his head. "Think about it, kid. Remember what you said earlier, about the people from the Academy who 'still have some good in them'?"

No…he couldn't be…

Torchwick drew a card from his deck. "Sora Perse disagrees." He flipped the card forward-it was a monster, "Genex Controller". "Thanks to the effect of my R-Genex Accelerator, I can automatically summon any Genex monster I draw to the field!" Torchwick slammed the card onto the field, and a small, unfinished-looking robot appeared next to the Accelerator (1400/1200).

Yuya took a defensive stance. Torchwick had enough cards now to take out his remaining Hippo tokens. He would have to make his next turn really-

"And," Torchwick added, taking another card from his hand. "With Genex Controller on my field, I can summon Genex Furnace without needing to tribute either the Controller or the Accelerator!" Torchwick placed the card on the field, and a gigantic robotic furnace appeared next to the small robot (2000/1300).

-oh, no.

"That's not all, kid!" Torchwick took one last card from his hand. "I'm sure you can guess what happens next." Yuya took a step back, his teeth gritted. "C'mon, I'm sure you've seen it before-from what our mutual friend told me, I'm sure you've said it before!" Torchwick flipped the card around, and Yuya recognized it instantly. A blue portal, with orange swirls surrounding it. "Here, I'll even channel you for a bit," he laughed, "just for the fun of it!" Torchwick spread his arms out wide, mimicking Yuya's pose from the start of the duel. "Attention, assholes," he roared. On the other side of the battlefield, Ruby and the others (Neo included, who seemed to bristle at the term "asshole" being applied to her) turned to face the duelists' area, confused looks shared across their faces. "Behold, ladies and gentlemen, as the beginning of the end is upon us! It's time for some real action in this duel!" Torchwick slipped the card into the disk, the holographic facsimile of it flipping upwards on the field.

"I activate the spell card Polymerization!"

The card spat out a portal directly behind the Furnace and the Controller. The two were sucked into the portal, their bodies becoming twisted wisps as they fell into its depths. Embers began to spit out from the portal. "Rise from the ashes of defeat, and snatch victory from its jaws!" A loud screech burst from the portal, causing everyone other than Torchwick and Neo to cover their ears in pain. A pair of flaming wings sprang from the portal. "Scorch the Earth, and let none survive!" Black armor pushed forward, as well as sharp claws, a curved beak, and piercing red eyes. "I summon the Burning Bombardment Bird…Blaze Fenix!"

The portal vanished, and in its place was an all-too familiar figure: the phoenix that, not moments before, had nearly destroyed the entire team (2800/2300).

The whole field went silent. Yuya turned his head for a moment to check on the others. He could see Ruby clutching onto her weapon extremely tightly. Ren and Nora completely ignored Neo in favor of aiming their weapons at the monster. Jaune was the only one keeping an eye on Neo, pointing his sword at her, though even at Yuya's distance anyone could tell that the blade was shaking. Neo didn't seem to be paying much attention to anything other than Torchwick and the bird.

"Again with the speechlessness," Yuya heard Torchwick mutter. Yuya turned back to face him, and took a deep breath. This didn't change anything. Torchwick still could only attack the tokens, and he could work with this just as long as he got a good draw-and even if he didn't get one, he'd been in worse situations before. He could do this!

Torchwick cleared his throat, knocking Yuya out of his thoughts. "Say, kid, here's a quick math question: how many cards are on the field?"

"Huh?" That was a strange question. Couldn't he figure it out himself? Cautiously, Yuya looked across the field. There was the Accelerator, the Fenix, the Assembly Line, the three dancing hippos, Hip Hippo, and Salutiger. "There's eight, right?"

"Bingo!" Torchwick clapped, chuckling. "Very good, kid." He leapt from his platform, landing with a slight wobble on top of the Fenix's armor. "Now, here's something interesting-my Blaze Fenix has a special ability. In exchange for its ability to attack this turn, it can cause three-hundred points of damage for every card on the field. Here's a bonus question: what's three-hundred times eight?"

Yuya's eyes went wide. "T-that's twenty-four hundred points worth of damage!"

"Two in a row! Amazing!" The bird flapped its wings, soaring into the air. It hovered above the field, looking down at Yuya as flames coalesced in its maw. Torchwick pointed towards Yuya. "Blaze Fenix, give the kid his prize!" The phoenix obliged, firing a humongous fireball towards Yuya. Hip Hippo, the dancing hippos, and Salutiger all jumped in front of Yuya and tried to block the fireball, but they were blasted aside in short order. The fireball smacked straight into Yuya, who screamed in pain as he was knocked off the platform. He hit the ground face-first, with a loud thud to punctuate it.

Ruby darted forward, rose petals left in her wake as she and the others sped over towards Yuya. Unfortunately, Neo jumped in their path, causing them to pause as she withdrew a blade from her umbrella. Readying their own weapons, the team watched Torchwick and the phoenix fly towards Yuya, who struggled to get up from the ground. "Ooh, that had to smart," the man said, tone dripping with icy malice. He hopped off the bird, looming over Yuya, his shadow covering any nearby light. "Though the blow to your ego's probably stinging a bit more."

Yuya pushed against the ground, his arms giving out within seconds. He could feel blood dripping from his nose. "W-what're you talking about?"

"Did you really think that it would be that easy to take me out? Did you think that I wouldn't actually play this damn game before I came here?" Torchwick reached into his coat, taking out his cane. "I practiced and practiced, made sure I knew exactly what these cards could do. I may be new to this, but that doesn't mean I'm stupid."

"Plus," he added, "I don't know everything they're doing over at Duel Academy, or who they've pissed off, and quite frankly, I don't care. But, like a good student, I did my homework. I learned about the Academy's enemies, about the only people who have dared stand in their way so far-and guess who was top of the list?"

Torchwick kicked the boy, turning him onto his back before jabbing the cane into his chest. Yuya gasped in pain as the cane pushed down on his ribcage. "So, I talked with the only duelist in the Academy-that was around, anyway-that faced you. I didn't know if I'd run into you, but it never hurts to know who public enemy number one is." Torchwick leaned in closer. "Especially when it's not me for once. You'd be surprised how much free time you have when no cops're after you. Definitely helps when they all think you're dead."

* * *

Ruby glanced to Jaune as the two huddled into a circle, back to back with Nora and Ren as Neo began to advance. "Hey, Jaune?" she whispered.

"Yeah?"

"You know that thing you did with Nora and Yuya?"

Jaune groaned, but answered with "Yeah, yeah. My shield arm's gotten enough rest by now. You're gonna need some distance, though."

Ruby turned to Ren and Nora. "Can you two cover us?"

Nora gave a salute in response, and Ren offered a nod.

"Alright…break!"

The four broke apart just as Neo struck, leaving her stabbing at air. She turned to chase after Ruby and Jaune, but a gunshot from Ren caught her attention-as did the hammer she was suddenly face to face with.

* * *

Yuya tried to reach for his deck, but Torchwick's foot slammed down onto his duel disk, cracking it straight down the middle. Over on Yuya's side of the dueling field, his monsters began to flicker in and out, frozen in mid-motion. "Ah, ah, ah. No cheating. It's still my turn, kid." Torchwick raised his cane for a brief moment. "And I haven't attacked yet." He flipped open the barrel of the cane, placing it back onto Yuya's chest and moving it close to his heart. Yuya's head was spinning, and his heart was pounding. He could feel something stirring inside him as Torchwick spoke. It was a familiar feeling, a combination of despair and fear.

These emotions weren't directed towards Torchwick, surprisingly enough. No, Yuya knew what was making him feel this way.

And it chilled him to the bone.

"You-you don't have to do this, Torchwick! You don't have to listen to the Academy! We can duel fair and-argh!" Yuya's free hand clutched his heart, the pounding getting stronger and stronger. He wouldn't be able to hold it in for much longer.

Hold _him_ in.

"Face it, kid, you would've lost the duel even if I played completely fair! That's just the way it is." Torchwick sneered at Yuya, the sadistic joy clear as day on his face. "Besides, weren't you the one who said that there wasn't any good left in me? I'm just proving you right! Besides, this isn't for Duel Academy." He shook his head. "No, no, no. After all the crap you've put me through today, this is 100% personal."

"But-but what about all that talk about beating me at my own game?!"

Torchwick shrugged. "Funny thing about that: I got bored." He grinned. "I wasn't having very much fun-and isn't that the whole point?"

Yuya could barely hear Torchwick anymore, groaning in pain as a voice began to ring inside his head:

" _He's one of them."_

" _He'll just destroy everything like the rest of them did."_

" _We can't let this world become another Heartland!"_

" _He has to be stopped!"_

Yuya felt his hair stand on end, as well as his breath catching short every few seconds. He felt pain, and lots of it.

But more than that…

He felt _**angry.**_

"You know, Sora told me all about your ridiculous catchphrases too," Torchwick mused, either not noticing or not caring about the young boy's agony. "Carve the arc of victory?" "Swing into action?" They're all pretty stupid if you ask me." The man's grin had become utterly maniacal, twisting his features into a monstrous sight. Above him, Blaze Fenix circled around, like a vulture waiting for its prey. "There was one that I did like, though, so I hope you don't mind if I steal it. It is kind of my forte, after all." The barrel of the cane began to glow. "I'm taking control of this duel, starting-"

"Now!"

A gunshot rang out, piercing the air. A red blur zoomed in between the duelists, and when it passed, Yuya was missing. Torchwick wheeled around, seething as he watched Ruby lay Yuya down by a tree. The boy's eyes were half-closed, and he was clutching his chest. Ruby looked panicked, though less at Torchwick and more for Yuya.

Torchwick raised his cane to Ruby, shouting "Can't you ever let me have anything in life, Red?!"

"Sure!" She pointed behind the man. "You can have her!"

"…I can what-"

At that, Neo slammed into Torchwick with the force of a truck, sending the two tumbling and sprawling onto the ground, their weapons flung aside and quickly nabbed by Ruby. The cards in Torchwick's duel disk fell out from the force of the crash, causing the Blaze Fenix, the Accelerator, and the Machine Assembly Line to vanish. A short distance away, Nora raised Magnhild in triumph. "How's that?"

Jaune and Ren, running as fast as their legs could take them, reached the two just as they attempted to get up. Ren aimed his guns at Torchwick, and Jaune held his blade to Neo once more, with a far sturdier grip than before. "D-don't move! Either of you!"

Torchwick rolled his eyes. "Ooh. Ahh. I'm so scared. Oh, nooo." Neo held a hand up to her mouth, presumably giggling, causing Jaune to jump slightly at the movement. Ruby and Nora returned to formation near the others, leaving the two criminals surrounded.

"I would be at the very least worried," Ren pointed out as he kneeled down to reach eye level with Torchwick, "Given that you have no weapons, no escape, and no plan."

Torchwick grinned. "Is that so?"

Over by the tree, Yuya wearily opened his eyes. Through his blurred vision, he could make out Torchwick and Neo sitting up, both raising their hands into the air. Were they surrendering? No, they couldn't have been. What were they-

Yuya's eyes snapped wide open in realization. "Break their duel disks!" he shouted, his voice hoarse and strained as he reached out weakly towards the others. "Quick!" Ren quickly obliged and stabbed Torchwick's disk before the man could bring his hand down onto it. Torchwick slid his hand out from under the disk as the knife end of Stormflower could reach it. Sparks flew from the machine as it clattered to the ground. The man raised his feet and kicked Ren away, sending him crashing into Nora. Neo did much the same, but on Crocea Mors, sending the sword flying into the air and past Jaune-and towards Ruby.

Ruby ducked out of the way just in time, but as she came back up, Neo tackled her back down again. The weapons Ruby was holding clattered to the ground, and Neo snatched them up before anyone else could. She then pressed a button on the side of her duel disk, a blue light suddenly enveloping her. Torchwick stumbled over and grabbed Neo's shoulder, which caused the light to cover him as well.

"I'm afraid this is where we say goodbye for now, but don't worry," he assured Ruby, who (while still on the ground) aimed Crescent Rose towards Neo's disk. "I'll be back!" He glared over at Yuya, who had fallen back to the tree, breathing heavily. "You can count on it." The light overtook the two just as Ruby fired at the disk, sending the shot flying through and away into the forest. When the light faded, the two were gone. The platforms and Yuya's monsters vanished as well, as a distorted voice from Yuya's duel disk crackled "Duel Cancelled." After that, the forest fell to silence.

Jaune was the one who broke the quiet. "Did…did we win?"

"Not by a long shot." The four quickly resumed fighting stances, turning in the direction of the voice. Ruby immediately put down Crescent Rose as she recognized the figure in front of them.

"Uncle Qrow?! What're you doing here?"

The man scratched the back of his head. "Babysitting. And doing a piss-poor job of it, apparently."

The others-Jaune especially-looked on in shock. This was Ruby's uncle? They never got a chance to meet him in person up till now, but they heard about him plenty after they started their journey. This was the legendary huntsman she spoke so highly of?

The man walked straight up to Ruby, near ignoring the others' stares as he knelt down to ruffle her hair. "How ya feelin', kiddo?" He looked at her left hand, cringing as he saw the burns. "What've I told you about playing with fire?" he joked, offering a small smile as Ruby returned a quiet laugh. His smile vanished as he stood back up, looking over at Yuya. The boy's eyes had closed, his breathing returned to normal. Qrow looked back to the others. "We're moving. I'll carry the kid."

"What?!" Jaune shouted, quickly covering his mouth. "I-I mean, Mr. Qrow, sir," he stammered, "Shouldn't we set up camp here?"

"Not worth it," Qrow replied, walking over to Yuya. "Too many negative emotions from the fight, especially from Torchwick. Grimm'll be swarming this place in no time." He kneeled down, carefully unsnapping the duel disk from his wrist before placing it on his own. "We'll go about two miles down. I know a spot that should be pretty isolated. We'll talk more there. For now, grab whatever's left of your site, and let's move."

Ren cleared his throat. "What do we do about Torchwick's duel disk?" Qrow let out a "hrm" as he walked over to the smoldering machine, which looked intact enough, but had a very noticeable hole in the middle. He picked it up by the strap, letting it dangle for a moment.

"We're taking it with us. Can't let anyone else get their hands on it. Blondie," he added, turning to face Jaune. He tossed it towards the young man, who caught it by the strap. "You hold onto it. Don't let it out of your sight. We don't have much time, so get to work on the campsite."

Jaune looked down for a moment before nodding, leading Ren and Nora as they scoured the ground for any surviving camping supplies. Ruby walked near the site of the duel, and saw the cards from Yuya's hand lying in a pile on the ground. As she picked them up, she saw a glint on the ground. She looked down, and saw the four cards that Torchwick had dropped-the Genex monsters, the Assembly Line spell card, and the Blaze Fenix, its holographic paper shining in the sunlight.

She reached down to grab them, but a hand on her shoulder stopped her. "I've got them." Qrow reached down and picked up the cards, pocketing them. "I'll hold onto these ones for now. They caused a lot of damage-best to keep them under lock and key for now." Ruby nodded, and Qrow gave her a pat on the head. "You did good. All of you did." His shoulders slumped slightly as he added "I just wish I'd gotten involved sooner."

Ruby looked over to Yuya's sleeping form. "Do you think he's going to be ok?"

"Can't say for sure." Qrow followed Ruby's gaze. "Physically, probably. But mentally? Honestly, it looked like he was about to lose it."

"Well, he was scared. Anyone would be."

"That's not what I mean." The hunter walked back over towards Yuya. "We'll talk about it later."Qrow picked up the boy and placed him on his back, letting Yuya's arms hang over his chest. "Everyone ready to go?"

"Yep!"  
"Yes, sir."  
"Yeah, yeah."

Qrow looked to Ruby, who nodded in return. "Alright, then let's get a move on."

* * *

As the five trekked onward, Qrow looked at Yuya's duel disk. Part of it had a noticeable boot print on it, and the central console was cracked straight down the middle. This was a ridiculously fragile piece of equipment. And yet…

He looked back at the terrain behind them, charred with flame and the tell-tale signs of battle. He looked at the teenagers following him, exhausted and tired. He looked at his niece, and her hand. Fragile as it was, this thing was a weapon through and through. But where'd it come from? And why did that lunatic have one?

He looked to the young man sleeping on his shoulder. Whatever was going on-the lights, Torchwick, and who knows what the hell else more-, this kid at least had some stake in it. One way or another, Qrow was going to get answers. He just hoped the kid was cooperative. If Ruby trusted him, he could at least give him the benefit of the doubt.

Unfortunately for Qrow, doubt was a resource in no short supply.


	6. Showboat

He could see everything.

A city burning down.

People crying out in terror.

An army marching onwards.

Those soulless eyes, locked on the fleeing crowds.

Their sinister smiles as they raised their duel disks.

He could see all the pain, all the suffering, all the horrors that those megalomaniacs caused.

He could see it all.

And it made him _**mad**_ _._

The army came to a sudden halt. They split apart, and a man walked between the halves. Familiar red hair and the tell-tale tapping of a cane came closer and closer to Yuya. Yuya's heart began to race, and his body began to shake. The man came to a stop, close enough that Yuya could see his toothy grin.

Torchwick.

"Kid, kid, kid. You know, this all could've been avoided if you weren't such a smarmy little brat." The man raised the cane, its barrel beginning to glow.

"And now, another world has to pay the price. Them's the breaks."

"I'll stop you…" Yuya's breathing was ragged, and his vision began to blur. "I'll stop all of you!"

The glow now encompassed everything around Yuya, Torchwick and the army fading away. He could still hear the man's voice as everything went to white. "Say hi to Red for me when you see her."

There was a "bang."

* * *

Yuya's eyes snapped open, darting back and forth. His heart raced, beating at a rate he didn't even think it had the capability to. The boy squinted his eyes as his vision began to focus. Carefully, he turned his head to his right. He could see the edge of a blanket, and beyond that a smattering of dirt and grass, trees in the distance. He looked up. Stars dotted the sky. He could hear a faint crackling sound, and he felt cool air blow past him (sending an involuntary shiver down his spine in the process).

Yuya placed his hands down on the blanket and attempted to push himself up. A jolt of pain rushed through his right arm as he pressed down, but not enough to keep him from sitting upright. He raised his right arm up, and saw a dark bruise, clear as…well, night in this case.

He tried to remember what happened. How he got that bruise, how he got here-heck, he was wondering where "here" was. Maybe Ruby and the others could-

His eyes widened. Memories flooded back to him.

The fight.

The duel.

The last thing Yuya remembered was seeing Torchwick and his partner vanish. After that, everything was a blank.

What happened to everyone?

Yuya looked forward. A small fire was burning, and a number of sleeping bags surrounded it. He recognized the weapons that laid right next to each bag, as well as the faces of their occupants, and a sigh of relief escaped his lips. It looked like things worked out for the-

"So. You're awake."

Yuya jumped, his blanket nearly getting tangled up in his legs as he did so. He turned towards the source of the voice. "Who-"

"Keep your voice down." The boy froze up as red eyes bored into him. A black-haired man in a two-toned grey shirt, black pants, and a red cloak sat a few feet away from him. "Don't want to wake up the whole camp. They've been through hell today, in part because of you. They deserve some rest."

Yuya shuffled backwards cautiously, taking care to not get caught up in the blanket. "Who are you?"

"The name's Qrow. I'm Ruby's uncle."

Yuya looked over to Ruby, and then back to Qrow. "Huh. I can kind of see the resemblance!" He extended his hand towards the man. "Well, it's nice to meet you, sir. My name's-"

Qrow's gaze narrowed, and Yuya's hand went down quickly. "Yuya Sakaki. I heard. I'm pretty sure all of Patch heard."

"Sorry," Yuya replied, scratching the back of his head. "That's just how I do things. It's how my dad did things, and it's how entertainment duelists do things. I'm-"

"-'a goddamned showboat'."

Yuya's eyes widened. Qrow stood up, dusting a couple leaves off of his jacket. "That's what Torchwick said, right?" The boy nodded, his mind flashing back to the duel. All of the pain that came with it flowed back into him, as the exhaustion from the day's events began to take hold.

Qrow sighed, looking up at the sky. "Honestly-and I can't believe I'm saying this-he's not wrong."

Yuya rose to his feet, shaking. "What…what're you-"Yuya couldn't find the words. All the things he could've said-all the things he wanted to say-just faded away as Qrow turned to face him again.

"Look, I don't know how things work in your neck of the woods, but this world can't accommodate people like you." Qrow walked towards Yuya, muffled branches snapping underneath the blanket as he did so. He stopped just inches away from Yuya, glowering down. "Ruby told me all about your world. Sounds like you've got a pretty big name there-or at least, your dad did, and you're picking up his slack. Sounds like he didn't stick around too long to see you get your name up in lights."

Yuya's hands balled up into fists, and he raised one towards Qrow. "D-don't you dare-"

"-'talk about my dad like that,' yeah, yeah." Qrow shook his head. "You're not the first person to tell me that, and you won't be the last. Talked with a lot of dumbass kids in my time." He turned to the sleeping bags, his eyes locked on Ruby's in particular. "That being said, I can't say I don't know how that can feel." Yuya followed Qrow's gaze-what did Ruby have to do with any of this? It's not like she-

The realization hit him suddenly and with the force of a freight train.

Yuya's fist dropped down and fell limply to his side. "Who-"

"Her mom."

Oh no.

"Is she-"

"Dead."

Yuya could almost feel his heart come to a stop. "H-how?"

Qrow sat back down on the blanket, resting his hands flat on the fabric. "She went out on a mission and never came back. Simple as that." Yuya opened his mouth to speak again, but stopped as Qrow held up a hand. "Trust me, we looked. We searched. We did everything in our power to find her-and that didn't change a damn thing."

Memories flooded back to Yuya. The duel his dad was supposed to have against the Sledgehammer. The hurt when he realized his dad had backed out.

The pain when he realized that his dad wasn't coming home for dinner.

The horror when he realized his dad wasn't coming home at all.

Yuya remembered everything.

Every birthday that he missed.

Every achievement he didn't see.

Every successful duel, every agonizing loss.

Every time Yuya would hear the front door knock.

Every time he hoped, begged with the universe for it to be his dad.

Never once was his wish answered.

"Why did you tell me all this?" Yuya's voice cracked, and tears began to well up in his eyes. He remembered the pain that he felt when his dad went missing-was it the same for Ruby? Worse? "Why would you-"

"To make a point." Qrow's expression softened as he watched Yuya wipe his eyes. He stood back up, walking to Yuya and placing a hand on his shoulder. The boy flinched for a brief moment. Qrow immediately withdrew his hand, placing it in a pocket. He turned and walked to the fire, staring straight down into it.

As Yuya wiped his eyes clean, the man spoke. "You and Ruby-and hell, even her sister-have been through this kind of experience. That's something you all share, and that pain is universal. But," he added, reaching into his cloak with his free hand, "You had something they didn't." The man drew out Yuya's duel disk. Yuya hadn't even gotten a chance to look at it before he lost consciousness earlier-it was cracked and broken, but still intact for the most part. "You had this."

Yuya wiped his eyes, his face scrunching in confusion. "My…duel disk?"

"In a way." Qrow tossed Yuya the disk over his shoulder. The boy grabbed a hold of it, unintentionally, with his bruised arm. He cringed for a moment before lowering it down. Yuya turned the disk around and upside-down, inspecting it as best he could. It still had his deck inside, though some cards looked worse for wear. "You had something you could latch onto, this…'duel monsters' game. You had friends you could play it with. People you could count on and trust that weren't just your family. I'm guessing it gave you an out for your emotions-along with a bright, sunny new attitude. You became a ringmaster-hell, probably not that. More like a clown. Am I right?"

"I…I don't…" Yuya let out a slow sigh. "I don't know."

"It's a rhetorical question. You're not supposed to answer those." Qrow kicked a twig into the fire, watching as it burned to ash. Qrow looked over the sleeping forms of the team. Jaune was sleeping flat on his stomach, his bag scrunched up, and snoring up a storm. Nora was curled up next to her weapon, holding it tight as she slept. Ren was the only one who seemed to be sleeping normally out of the whole team, laid down in his bag as still as the night.

Finally, Qrow glanced over at Ruby. She was sprawled out in her sleeping bag, exhaustion clear in her body language. She had conked out as soon as they had gotten to the campsite, and for good reason. Yuya glanced at Qrow as he watched over his niece, and could spot a small glimpse of a smile on the man's face.

"Ruby had her dad, and her sister, and even myself from time to time. Hell, I've literally saved her life before." Qrow held up a finger to shush Yuya before the boy's mouth could even open an inch. "Long story, don't ask. Point is, family can only go so far. It wasn't until she met people like these three that she finally started to get something like what you had. Hell, this isn't even her original team, and she's still going as far as she is for them-and vice versa. All this isn't even the half of it, to be honest. You had a lot more to work with than she did, to say the least."

"Plus," he added, pointing at the deck in Yuya's duel disk, "From what Ruby told me, everything and anything involving that game-in your world, anyway-runs on some weird turn-based honor system. Am I right?" Yuya didn't answer. Qrow cleared his throat. "That one was an actual question."

"Oh!" Yuya scratched the back of his head, chuckling quietly. "Yeah. Yeah, it does. That's how all card games work, don't they? In any world?"

"I'm not talking about the actual game," Qrow clarified. "I'm talking about the attitude you seemed to expect out of Torchwick. You really didn't think he'd attack you? That he'd play by the rules?"

Yuya looked at his disk, running a hand over its damaged frame. "Well…yeah. That's how it goes. Or at least, that's how it should go. I mean, there's been damage from the game itself every now and again, but it's really rare for players to go after each other…" Yuya paused, looking up from the disk. "…except for people from Duel Academy-did Ruby tell you about them?"

"She gave me the abbreviated version."

Yuya nodded. "Right. Still, even then, they usually play through the whole game, and just run off after they lose."

"That's part of the problem." Qrow walked back towards Yuya, kneeling down to face him at eye level. "You're running on the assumption that he's playing by their rules, that he has the same mentality, the same thought process as people from your world."

Yuya shook his head. "That's just the thing-Duel Academy isn't from our world. If they wanted to, they could easily do the same thing."

"They could, sure-but they won't."

"Why not?"

"Take a wild guess." Yuya frowned. Was Qrow talking about manpower? Weaponry? Anything like that?

…wait.

"They've got Duel Monsters at Duel Academy too!"

"There ya go." A tiny smirk formed on Qrow's face. "Now you're getting' it." He stood up, stretching his arms wide with a groan. "Even if they're not of your world, they're of your world's kind. I don't know what it is, why it is, or even if it really matters, but something about that game informs how people from your neck of the woods act and think." He looked right into Yuya's eyes, the intensity of the stare sending a shiver down Yuya's spine.

"You've been lucky to live in a world like that, with the people you had. But this isn't your world anymore. I'm not asking you to change who you are, but you'll have to adapt if you want to make it more than a day here. Don't assume the best of people, because you won't get it, and don't try to hog the spotlight, because it's going to burn you. Got it?"

Yuya nodded, and Qrow's smirk became a full-on grin. "Good. Now that I've got all that dramatic bullshit out of the way, one last thing." He pointed his thumb backwards towards Ruby's sleeping bag as he walked past the boy, bumping into him for a brief moment. "Thanks for looking out for her. Trust me, she'll return the favor."

Though he did stumble for a moment, a smile grew on Yuya's face as the man began to walk into the shadows of the forest. "I was more than happy to-"

A gust of wind interrupted him, with enough dust kicked up to make the boy cover his eyes. When he was finally able to open them, Qrow was gone. "…Mr. Qrow?"

Yuya jumped in surprise as yawn burst from Ruby's sleeping bag. The girl sat up, wiping her eyes as she looked around the campsite. Her hair looked frizzled and even slightly curled, no doubt a result of her "accommodations," and she looked like she slept in the same outfit she wore pretty much for the entire fight. "Yuya? Is that you?"

"Yeah." Yuya walked over to the sleeping bag, sitting down in front of it. He placed his duel disk next to the bag. "How're you feeling?" he asked, his voice quiet.

Ruby glanced at the others, and replied in a whisper, "Like I just got attacked by a giant bird." Ruby grinned, craning her neck back and forth as she stretched her arms out wide. Yuya couldn't help but notice that neither of her arms had any sign of a burn-maybe Ruby and Qrow had done something to help cool it down when he was out? He hid his own arm's bruise by crossing his arms under his jacket. _No need to make her worry right after she woke up._ "So, the usual."

"That's normal for you?"

"Hey, if giant dragons are normal for you-"

"Could you two keep it down?" Yuya peeked over Ruby's shoulder to see Jaune turning over in his sleeping bag, glaring at the two. "I'd like to get at least some sleep before the next time something tries to attack us, if you don't mind."

"Sorry!" Ruby called out. Jaune put a finger to his mouth, letting out a "shhh" noise.

"Is it morning already?" Nora murmured, scooching herself further into her bag. "Five more minutes," she whined.

"No, it's not morning," Jaune whispered through gritted teeth. "It's-"

"Time to go to sleep." All four fell silent as Ren whispered, his eyes still closed.

"Yeah, exactly," Jaune grumbled. "Everyone, just go back to bed."

"No," Ren replied. "I mean, play pretend. Someone's coming."

"You mean Uncle Qrow?" Ruby asked.

Yuya shook his head. "Can't be-he just left a couple minutes ago." Ruby's expression dropped at that, but before she could say a word, a loud "crash" from the forest caught her attention, followed by an even louder noise:

"Get off of me! Get! Go! Shoo!"

"…everyone," Ruby whispered, "Go to sleep."

Most of the group laid down and closed their eyes, Jaune especially quick to fall limp as footsteps began to echo into the forest. Yuya, on the other hand, stood back up, looking into the forest.

Jaune peeked open an eye, which widened when he saw the young boy still on his feet. "Yuya, get down! What're you doing?!"

"I know that voice," Yuya replied, a defeated tone in his words. "I'd know it anywhere."

"What the hell are you talking about? "

The footsteps grew louder and louder, as did the shouts and the screams. A figure, partially masked by the shadow of the night, began to approach from the forest. It appeared to be clutching at its head. "Somebody, help me! They're in my hair! Oh, god, they're in my hair!"

Yuya groaned, stepping to the side. "Of all the people…" He turned to the others. "Don't worry, guys. I think I know who we're dealing with here."

Ruby stood up first, followed by Nora and Ren. Jaune remained perfectly still, grumbling something about being "better safe than sorry." Ruby glanced over at Yuya. "Is he one of your friends?"

"Friend is a bit of a strong word, to be honest," the boy replied. The figure in the forest grew closer, his features becoming clearer. He appeared to be about Yuya's age, if not a little older. Dark brown hair with spiked blonde highlights came into view as the moonlight shone down on the young man. His hair was covered in twigs and leaves, and Ruby could almost make out a squirming worm attempting to break free of the bright locks.

He wore a jacket much like Yuya's, white with red shoulder pads. In contrast to Yuya's more casual look, however, the boy wore a dark blue collared shirt, and red pants. Brown dress shoes-scuffed, covered in dirt, mud, and grime-stomped through the field towards the group. A duel disk adorned his arm. The team took battle positions at this sight. Yuya held up his hand and waved them down. "I don't think you should worry too much."

The figure looked up, seemingly spotting the five for the first time. "You there!" The young man spoke with a posh tone, and his eyes betrayed intense panic and worry as he drew closer. "You have to help me! Everything in this forest is trying to kill me!" As he spoke, the worm finally broke free of its chains, and fell out of the boy's hair.

Right onto his nose.

The boy shrieked, clawing at his face as he attempted to get the worm off of his nose (though avoiding any attempts to actually touch the creature). In his panic, the boy stumbled forward, lurching ahead and straight towards the ground in front of the sleeping bags in the process. He landed with a thud, a pained groan escaping his lips as his chin connected with the ground. Not a moment too soon, the worm quickly slid off his nose and back onto the ground, squirming away as fast as possible. The boy glanced up at the group, eyes darting back and forth until they settled on Yuya's face. "Sakaki! So this is where you've been!"

"Nice to see you too, Sylvio." Yuya knelt down, extending a hand. "You ok?"

"As well as I can be for being dropped into the middle of a forest." Sylvio reached out for Yuya's hand, then paused as he (and the rest of the team, Yuya quickly realized) saw his bruise. "You look a bit worse for wear yourself."

"You aura didn't heal you?" Jaune asked, only to be met with a blank stare from both Yuya and Sylvio. "What, you Earthers don't have aura either? How are any of you still alive?"

"Says the guy who didn't have his aura unlocked till he came to Beacon," Nora piped up with in a sing-song voice.

"…I rescind my statement," Jaune muttered.

Sylvio rolled his eyes. "I'll pretend that made sense." He pushed himself off the ground, dusting off his jacket. "Eurgh, just got this cleaned too," he muttered. He looked around at the team. "And just who might you be?"

"That's a question we should be asking you," Ren replied. "Or rather, Yuya."

Yuya moved next to Sylvio, placing a hand on his shoulder-a sight that made Ruby snicker due to the two's height difference. "Don't worry, Ren, we can trust him. This is Sylvio Sawatari. He's one of the people I was…'traveling' with before I got here."

Ruby walked up to Sylvio, hand outstretched. "Any friend of Yuya's is a friend of ours! My name's Ruby, and this is Jaune, Nora, and Ren!"

Sylvio smirked, pushing his hair out of his eyes before returning the handshake. "It's a pleasure, I'm sure." Ruby grimaced-did he mean him meeting them or them meeting him? Letting go of Ruby's hand, Sylvio glanced down at Yuya with a frown. "Not that you made it easy for me to get here. What were you thinking, turning off your duel disk in uncharted territory?"

Yuya raised an eyebrow. "I didn't turn off my duel disk."

"Then what happened to it?"

"It kind of…broke." Yuya knelt down and picked up the remains of his duel disk, bits of metallic plating flaking off as he did so. "Long story."

Sylvio sighed, shaking his head. He began to tap and press on the screen of his own duel disk. "Leave it to you to end up destroying a perfectly good piece of machinery. No matter. Declan should be able to take care of that."

"Look, it's not my-wait, Declan?!" Yuya's eyes widened, darting around the campsite. "Is he here?"

Sylvio tapped his disk once more. "Well…you could say that." He held the disk out, cleared his throat, and said "We're ready for pickup, Declan."

At that, bright spotlights shone down on the campsite, and a loud noise erupted above them. Everyone in the area-Sylvio included-quickly covered their eyes as the lights came closer. Yuya quickly put on his goggles, hoping they would at least dilute some of the light. While they didn't stop everything, Yuya hoped to see what was causing those…

… _no way._

An airship, titanic in size, hovered above the scene. It looked more like a missile than a ship, to be honest, but at its size what else could it have been? Spikes-or were they spokes? Yuya didn't really know the terminology-jutted out from its back, and a series of other assorted shapes dotted the outside of the ship. The front looked like an arrow, pointing straight ahead. Sylvio stepped in front of the group, shouting "Back! Move back!" The team followed his instruction, everyone backing up as far as they could as the ship descended slowly from the sky.

"How in the hell did a giant ship like that sneak up on us?" Jaune yelled over the roar of the engine, a hand hovering over his eyes like a visor.

"Maybe they had super sneaky engines," Nora shouted back.

"What?!"

"I said, 'maybe they'-"

"I heard you, I just can't believe what I heard!"

Ren chuckled. "Given everything we've faced today, that's what you don't believe?"

"I have to have some kind of hard limit on this kind of nonsense!"

As the two argued, Ruby had a thought. She looked over to Sylvio. "Hey, Sylvio!" she called. "That's an Atlesian airship, right?"

"What's an Atlesian?" he asked in return.

Ruby sighed. "Never mind!" Maybe it was a little too much to hope for, but…

As the ship drew as close to the forest as it could get without crushing the trees below, the bottom hatch of the ship opened up. A series of ladders dropped down, reaching just above the ground. The crackling of speakers resounded through the air. "Attention passengers," a cheery voice announced. "The S.S. Lancer is now ready for boarding! Please make sure to take the weight and volatile nature of any and all personal items into account when boarding."

Yuya grinned. He definitely recognized that voice. "All aboard, guys!" Yuya dashed to the nearest ladder. Before he could grab hold, however, Nora grabbed him by the collar and yanked him back. "Whoa!" Yuya stumbled as Nora crossed her arms. "What was that for?"

"Your arm is hurt. There's no way you're climbing up that ladder!"

"I'm fine," Yuya complained, "Really! Besides, how else am I going to get up there? My duel disk is broken, so I can't summon any Performapals to help me up, and it's _definitely_ too high up to just reach it normally! What am I supposed to do?"

Ruby put a hand to her chin. This was a bit of a problem. One of them could probably carry him on their back as they climbed up, but that put him at risk of accidentally activating one of their weapons. Even if they were holstered, if someone pushed something the wrong way, someone could get hurt. Nora was definitely out, as her grenade launcher could go off if Yuya accidentally got his foot stuck in the trigger. Ren's weapon would be much harder to accidentally fire, so he was a possibility. That still meant Yuya had to hold onto something, and that could hurt his arm worse. Ruby definitely wasn't strong enough to carry him, and while Jaune probably had the strength, stamina was another question entirely. That just left…

Ruby grinned.

Sylvio felt a sudden chill run up his spine.


	7. The Best Laid Plans

"I don't see why one of them couldn't carry you."

"Sylvio, I'm sorry about this, but I really app-"

"Oh, you're sorry? 'Sorry' isn't going to pay for spinal realignment surgery, Sakaki!"

"Come on! I was going to say I appreciate the help, but your attitude is starting to convince me otherwise."

"What's that? 'Just drop me off here, Sylvio, I can handle the fall?' I think that's what you said."

"You know, Ruby," Ren murmured, peering down at the bickering duelists, "I probably could have carried Yuya fairly easily. It would have been no trouble at all." His eyes narrowed as he looked at Ruby. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you deliberately made Sylvio carry him because you thought it would be funny."

Ruby shrugged, smirking as she looked out the open hatch. "Why would you ever think that? And if you did think that, would you really disagree?"

"…" Ren crossed his arms, a small smile worming its way onto his face. "…not especially. After everything we went through today, I think we're due for a little fun."

"Well, you've come to the right ship for that!" Ruby wheeled around at the voice, reaching for Crescent Rose as she turned. A pair of hands came up in apparent surrender, the left clad in a black glove. "Hold on there! I'm a friendly!" Ren's smile vanished as he turned to the newcomer, a red-headed young man in a mishmash of clothes. Along with the glove (singular, Ren noticed), the man wore a blue shirt with a purple tie, an orange vest that seemed hacked off on the right side, grey pants, and reddish-brown shoes. Like Yuya and Sylvio, he too had a duel disk strapped to his arm.

Ren had seen some strange outfits in his time at Beacon, but this was on another level.

This was just _**painful.**_

"And you are…?" Ruby asked, shuffling slightly to the side as he approached. Ren eyed the man, but made no movements. The man walked in between the two, crossing his left arm over his right as he extended his hands towards the Hunters.

"Dennis Macfield, at your service! It's a pleasure to meet you two."

Ren, after a moment, accepted the hand with a firm grip, shaking it briefly before letting go. "Lie Ren."

Ruby tentatively shook the man's hand, letting go after a quick shake. "It's, uh…nice to meet you too! I think Yuya mentioned you when he told us his story, but I didn't expect you to be so…"

"…'Cheerful in the face of everything we've faced'?" Dennis finished for her. Ruby scratched her head, a sheepish grin crossing her face.

"Sorta. Yeah. How'd you guess?"

"A magician never reveals his secrets," he replied with a wag of the finger. "And, well, when everyone else is such doom and gloom someone has to be cheery-especially when Yuya's away!" Dennis grinned right back, raising his arms dramatically into the air. "After all, when he's not around, I have to do twice the entertaining around here!"

"Oh, I'm _**so**_ sorry for your increased workload, Dennis," a voice called out from below the trio. The three looked back down to see Sylvio and Yuya a few rungs from the top. "But if you could 'entertain' the idea of getting Sakaki off of my back," Sylvio continued, "We could take that work off your hands a lot quicker!"

Dennis chuckled and knelt down on one knee. "But Sylvio, you two look like you're just starting to bond!"

"Ha. Ha. Ha. I'm really losing it, Dennis," Sylvio answered in a monotone. "Hilarious."

Dennis frowned. "You don't have to be rude about it." He looked to Yuya, extending a hand. Yuya reached out instinctively with his right, but Dennis shook his head. Yuya quickly rescinded his right hand and replaced it with his left. Dennis grabbed ahold of it, pulling Yuya further up as the boy climbed over Sylvio's shoulders (eliciting an "Ow!" from the latter) and onto the ship. As soon as Sylvio made it aboard, Dennis began to roll up the ladder.

"Well, thank goodness that's all over and done with." Sylvio rubbed his back as he surveyed his surroundings. "I'm glad that siren's not blaring anymore."

"Siren?" Yuya and Ruby asked in unison.

"Yeah. It wouldn't shut up for the longest time after we took the ship."

Yuya raised an eyebrow. "…what do you mean by 'took,' Sylvio?

* * *

Declan Akaba was not in the best of moods.

This whole situation was, at best, a mess.

At worst, it was a complete, utter, and total trainwreck.

It shouldn't have been either of those things. He had set the coordinates just right. The Synchro Dimension was a button press away. But something felt off as he began to shift through dimensions. It felt like something was pulling him, redirecting him. He could just barely see it shift out of view-a world of chrome and ivory towers, the roar of engines and the shrieking of tires racing down the road.

In an instant, it all vanished, replaced with dark walls and dim lights. Everything went silent.

For a brief instant, Declan felt utter fear. These walls had a familiar look to them.

It couldn't be. Had his father interfered with the process?

Was he back at Duel Academy?

The gun he felt pointed to his head indicated otherwise.

"Drop your weapon!"

His weapon? They must mean the duel disk. He sighed. It wasn't worth it to argue. Declan kneeled down (with the gun trained on him the entire time) and unhooked his duel disk from his arm, letting it gently fall to the floor.

"Hands in the air. Now!"

Declan rose up, his arms outstretched towards the ceiling.

"I don't know how you got in here, or why you're here," the voice continued, "But whatever you're up to, it stops here." As the voice spoke, a quick flash of blue flickered out of Declan's peripheral vision. "You're going to follow my instructions-to the letter-and you're going to answer any and all questions I have while I take you over to my superiors. Am I clear?" the voice asked. Declan looked down. The flickering lights gave way to two shadows on the ground, one being Declan's own, and the other being his new friend-a tall, lanky figure by the looks of it.

"Indeed you are," Declan replied, "but may I ask a question in return?

There was no reply for a moment. Then, a sigh. "You get one question."

Declan watched passively as a third shadow-similarly tall, but stretching out wider, with jutting spikes at the end-overtook the second.

"What you're going to do about that headache?"

"…what headache?"

 _ **THUD!**_

The merged shadow split back into three, with the lanky shadow falling to the side. Declan turned around. A young man with navy hair, a blue overcoat-tattered and torn-, black pants, and beaten-up brown shoes stood before him. "Thank you, Shay," Declan said, crossing his arms. "I think we can safely assume we aren't in the Synchro Dimension, nor the Xyz, I'd presume?"

Shay Obsidian nodded. "I'd recognize Heartland immediately. Plus," he added, tapping on his duel disk, "the disk isn't showing this dimension as a recognized location." He looked up to Declan, his eyes narrowing. "You told me there were only three other dimensions besides mine."

"I told you there were three other we knew of," Declan responded. "I never said there couldn't be more."

Shay scoffed, but didn't comment further on that topic. Instead, he lifted his duel disk up to right under his mouth. "The coast is clear. You can come in."

The door opened and two more young men entered the room, Sylvio Sawatari and Dennis Macfield. They both looked worse for wear, with their scuffed clothing and bruised faces. "It's about time," Sylvio complained. "I was sweating bullets thinking another one of those jackbooted thugs was going to find and pummel us!"

Dennis laughed, patting the other boy on the back. "Come on, Sylvio, where's your sense of adventure?"

"Back in Standard," Sylvio replied, earning a hearty laugh from his cohort. Sylvio rolled his eyes before focusing them on Declan. "What happened, Declan? We had the right coordinates, didn't we?"

Declan nodded. "Yes, we did-and I made sure of that before any of us left." Shay raised an eyebrow at this, but offered no objection to the statement. "Someone tampered with the systems from the outside," Declan continued, "and deliberately sent us here. Otherwise, they would've scattered us throughout all the dimensions."

"The Academy, possibly?" Dennis asked, crossing his arms. "As a means of keeping us out of not just Synchro, but possibly the other dimensions?"

Declan nodded. "That's the most likely answer. But before we make theories, we have to make plans. To make plans, we need the whole of the Lancers. Where are the others?" An uncomfortable silence filled the room, giving Declan all the answers he needed. "We're finding them." Sylvio opened his mouth to comment, but quickly decided otherwise. Coming from Declan, this wasn't a statement, or a suggestion.

It was an order.

"How do we get out of here, though?" Dennis asked. "As far as we could tell, this is some kind of military base-or at least, something very militarized. It's going to be rather difficult to slip past them."

Declan put a hand to his chin. "Maybe we don't have to."

"Huh?" Sylvio scratched his head. "What's the alternative option?"

Declan looked at Sylvio with…a smile? "Tell me, Sylvio," Declan began.

"How fast can you run?"

* * *

Declan snapped out of his thoughts as stomping footsteps echoed from behind him. "Declan, what did you do?!" Declan turned, his features stoic and expressionless as Yuya (followed by what appeared to be everyone else on the ship, who were obviously trying to hold him back) barged into the control room. "What's going on?!" Declan offered no reply. Yuya began to walk closer. "Declan, please, I need to know- "He paused as he felt a hand clasp onto his shoulder. Looking up, he saw Ren glancing down, shaking his head.

"Yuya, now's not the time. We need to move out. We don't have much time before someone notices the airship." Ren looked towards Declan, sharing a steely gaze with the young magnate. "But you will explain everything once we're done here."

"Or else you'll get the hammer!" Nora added, stepping ahead of Ren and Yuya with Magnhild at the ready. Her voice was filled with gleeful malice.

"Uh…I think we'll be fine without the hammer, Nora," Yuya said. "He's one of my friends, so you don't need to worry about it."

"Aw, fine…but if you act like a jerk," she said, pointing her weapon towards Declan, "then bam! Hammer time!" Yuya could almost see a flicker of a smirk on Ren's face.

"Duly noted," Declan said with a nod, immediately turning back to the ship's controls. Yuya sighed, scratching the back of his head.

"I guess we've both got some explaining to do. Can you at least tell me where everyone else is? Gong? Shay? Serena?" His face paled for a moment. "What about Reira?"

Declan's fingers rapidly darted across a screen on the control panel. "We can talk when we're in safer airspace. We've already spent enough time here, more than absolutely necessary. We have to go."

"But- "

"Alrighty, then!" Dennis piped up from directly behind Yuya. Nearly everyone around him took a step (or in some cases, a jump) back in surprise. Yuya could have sworn he was in the back of the group, so how'd he-

Oh. Right. Magician.

Dennis clasped his hands together, a grin on his face. "To your seats, ladies and gentlemen-it's showtime!"

It was at that moment that the entire ship went dark, the craft shaking as a dull droning noise burst through the air. Yuya stumbled, falling down to the floor-and onto his bruised arm. The boy let out a cry of pain. His vision blurred from the impact and tears welling in his eyes, but he could still feel the shaking as he heard a few surprised yelps (and a loud "clang," followed by an "ow!"). Eventually, the shaking stopped.

A few seconds passed in stunned silence, before red lights crackled to life throughout the ship.

"It was just a figure of speech," Dennis groaned. Yuya's vision began to focus once more, and he saw nearly everyone (Declan and Ren excluded) lying down on the floor. He saw their weapons scattered across the room, with the exception of Jaune's shield, which laid flat on his face. Yuya couldn't help but feel pity for the poor guy. He seemed to have about as much luck as Sylvio.

Which was to say, barely any at all.

As soon as she was up, Ruby ran past the group and up to Declan, who was glancing down at the control panel. It flashed red and blue warning lights. "What just happened?"

"Something knocked out our power," Declan replied. "The emergency generators just kicked in."

A crackling noise-feedback of some kind-rang through a series of speakers in the room. "-oarded. I repeat, by order of the Kingdom of Atlas, you are under arrest. Stand down now and prepare to be boarded. This is not a request. You have thirty seconds to comply."

Jaune nearly hurled the shield off of his face as he leapt to his feet. "You stole this ship from _**Atlas**_? Are you mad?!"

"Hm. So that's who they were," Declan mused, tapping a few keys on the control panel. A screen popped up on the window showing nothing but static. He pressed a button on the side of the panel. The screen flickered, turning off for a brief moment. When the visual returned, the screen had an image of a man in a silver uniform with a robotic-looking helmet on it. "Attention, soldiers of Atlas," Declan began. "We have opened communications for negotiations. If you wish us to surrender, we must know who we are surrendering to."

The man stepped back, seemingly not expecting to get a response from the ship. He ducked away from the screen, and startled mutters bled into the audio coming out of the screen. Eventually, a new figure made its way into frame. She wore a white uniform, accentuated with a black vest and an even whiter jacket. Black gloves, silver thigh-high boots, and a red gemstone around her neck completed the ensemble. Her snow-white hair was tied up in a bun (though it was long enough for bangs to cross over one side of her face), and she wore a smirk on her face. Before she could even open her mouth, however, Declan spoke. "I take it you are the commanding officer of this armada?"

The woman's smirk vanished. "For the time being, yes. I am- "

"Winter?" The woman stopped mid-sentence, her gaze drifting to Declan's side. Her eyes widened slighty as she saw Ruby, who immediately looked down. "I-I mean, Miss Winter-I mean, Miss Schnee-I mean...ma'am." She stuttered nervously.

"Ruby Rose…this is certainly a surprise." Winter leaned into the screen, looking down at the young huntress. "Exactly what are you doing on a stolen Atlesian vessel?"

Ruby gulped. "Well…it's kind of a long story," she stammered out. "We'd love to tell you our side of it, especially since we just got here, and we kind of just fought a giant bird with Torchwick-well, Torchwick was on the giant bird, he wasn't with us, and then there were dragons and hippos and- "

"Stop."

"-there was this huge turbine and a weird little gnome thing- "

" _Stop_."

"-and then Nora hit that girl Torchwick always hangs out with in the face- "

" _ **Enough!**_ " Ruby's mouth slammed shut like a mousetrap. "I don't know what on Remnant you're talking about, but I did recognize the word 'Torchwick'. You saw him?"

Ruby nodded. "Y-yes, ma'am. And fought him."

Winter turned to her crew. "Change in plans. We will not be boarding that vessel."

"W-what?!" A soldier ran up to Winter, stopping a few feet away with a panicked salute. "I-I mean, Miss Schnee, they stole a damned ship! We can't let that go unpunished!"

"I never said we weren't going to make them face the consequences of their actions," Winter replied, glaring towards the soldier. "However, it seems that they have information we might need, so we will instead take them aboard ourselves. If you question my authority again, you will face consequences of your own." She narrowed her eyes. "Is. That. Clear."

The soldier mumbled out a "yes, ma'am" before shuffling back to his post. Winter turned back towards the screen. "We will be sending out a small party to bring you aboard, so I would advise you open your hatch."

Nearly everyone in the room let out a sigh of relief. "Oh, thank you, Winter!" Ruby smiled towards the screen. Thank you soooo- "

"Oh, I almost forgot." Winter smiled back at Ruby-a sight that sent shivers down Ruby's spine. "As you have all been placed under arrest, you will be spending your stay on my ship in the brig. I hope you don't mind."

"-oooooooh, no."


End file.
